Pray
Usually a surname of French origin, likely meaning “dweller by a meadow.”
The #8,700 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,830 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical explanations connect Pray with Old French words for “meadow,” ultimately from Latin pratum, meaning “meadow” or “grassland.” In this view, it began as a topographic surname for someone who lived by a meadow or open pasture. Some older writers also note Scottish-French forms with the same sense.
History
Nineteenth-century surname books treat Pray as a French place-based name, and they compare it with French surnames like Pre, Pri, and Dupray. The name also appears in English and Scottish records, which fits a surname that could travel with French-speaking migrants and later be absorbed into English spelling habits. In modern use it is uncommon in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname writers explicitly linked Pray with the same Latin root behind English words related to meadows and pasture.
From the historical record
“PRAY (Fr.-Lat. and Scot.-Fr.-Lat.) Dweller at a Meadow [O.Fr. pray (Fr. pri), Lat. prat-um] ' The pray bysprent wyth spryngand sproutis. — Douglas, Virgil, 400, 40. Pray, Pri, Dupray, Duprd, are common French surnames. Cp. Pratt. PREATER, V. the commoner form Prater.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)