From: Charles E Drake
Date: Monday, December 04, 2000 5:13 PM

A.  The way this question is asked makes it almost impossible to get a 
correct answer. First of all one must distinguish between the word Drake, the 
name Drake, and the surname Drake.  
 
The word "drake" is from old English for dragon, but before that
is derives from an old Indo-European root meaning serpent.  It
has been around for many thousands of years.  This has no bearing on
genealogy, though as mythology it is interesting.
 
The name Drake may have been used very early by the Scandinavians, but
not as an hereditary surname.  The fact that a Viking might have been
called "Draca" has no connection with the surname Drake, which arose much
later.
 
The surname Drake is mostly of English origin, and arose separately
in several places.  
 
Reference:   Anthony Richard Wagner,  Drake in England