Crank
An English surname most likely from a Lancashire place name, though some early authorities also linked it to the old sense “brisk, merry.”
The #7,873 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 73,441 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-supported explanation treats Crank as a locational surname, taken from a place called Crank in Lancashire. That fits the common English pattern of naming people after the place they came from. An older dictionary also noted an English word crank meaning “brisk, jolly, merry,” so in some cases the name may also have been understood as a nickname, but the place-name origin is the stronger reading here.
History
Bardsley and later surname guides connect the name with Crank in Lancashire, including Crank Hall, Crank Farm, and Crank Station. Lower, however, also listed crank as an adjective meaning “brisk, jolly, merry,” showing that the surname could have been interpreted more than one way in older scholarship. The surname survives today in small numbers in the United States and Britain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A surname guide by Bardsley specifically mentions Crank Station and Crank Hall as evidence for the Lancashire place-name origin.
From the historical record
“l)arish in Bedfordshire. CRANK. Brisk, jolly, merry. Hal- liwell. CRANLEY. A parish in Surrey. CRANMER. Anciently Crane-mere — the hill side of a low swampy country at Long Melford, co. Suffolk. CRANSTON. A parish in Edinburgh- shire, sometimes written Cranstoun.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom