This interesting and unusual name is of English origin and is locational from either of two places, 'Crayke' in Yorkshire and 'Crake' in Lancashire. The former is recorded in the Saxon Chartularly circa 685 as 'Crec', later still as 'Craic' in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1176, and is derived from the Olde Welsh 'creic', welsh, 'craig', a rock, and would thus describe a place on a ridge. The latter place in Lancashire has a recording in the 'Coucher Book of Furness Abbey' in circa 1160 as 'crayke' and has the same derivation as before. During the Middle Ages it became customary, when people left their birth place to seek work elsewhere, to adopt the place name as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. One Philip Creyke, son of William Creyke, was christened on 22nd April 1587, at Holme-upon-Spalding Moor, Yorkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry de Crake, which was dated 1296, Dumfries, Scotland, during the reign of John Balliol of Scotland, 1292 - 1296. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.