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

A.  Not in a technical genealogical sense.  There is a sense
in which names have a certain power and mystique 
(See Genesis 32:29). In this sense, everyone who bears
this name, or whose ancestors bore this name, belongs
to a sort of spiritual family.

There are at least four sources of the Drake family
in England:  Yorkshire, Essex, Norfolk, and the West Country,
including Devon.  It is likely that the Drakes of Ireland
and Warwickshire are from the same root as the Devon
Drakes.

While it is possible that some of these separate Drakes
might be related, it is unlikely based on their social status 
at the time surnames first became hereditary.  In order 
for all members of a single family to be related in various 
parts of England, the family would have to be very rich 
and probably of Norman French origin. This could be
consistent with one family spreading out and owning
land in many places.  Any surname deriving from an 
old English word is unlikely to have a single origin.

Reference:   Anthony Richard Wagner,  Drake in England