Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2020 10:32:04 +0000 (GMT)
From: MARK BALDACCHINO <mbaldac@btinternet.com>

Craig,

It's certainly possible. Surnames based on location names were very
prevalent in these areas of Devon where there were many relatively isolated
homesteads. I wrote in a paper on the formation of the Eastlake surname
long ago:

The evidence fits well with one of David Postles’ conclusions regarding
Devon surnames:

"One distinctive aspect of naming in the county [of Devon] in the middle ages
was the high proportion of locative surnames. Although the level declined
over the later middle ages, yet a very large number of surnames - derived
from local places in the county - persisted into modern times. Amongst the
corpus were surnames derived from place-names which were in turn derived
from topographical features."

Although the Lake surname does not occur in the Bratton Clovelly manor rolls,
that's why I suggested you look for deeds or other documents in the Chilla,
Holsworthy area for any evidence of the use of 'Lake' as a surname.

I took a quick look at Surname Atlas, a tool that uses the 1881 census
to plot name distribution and can often be useful in pointing to possible
locations of surname origin. While I assume Lake is a multi-origin surname, it
seems highly concentrated in Devon, Norfolk and London (note that many/most
surnames will show a concentration in London by 1881):

[pic1.png]

Looking at the level of Devon Poor Law Unions, you can see how concentrated
it is even better. In Devon, the highest concentration is around Exeter
but the name occurs across the county with some frequency:

[pic2.png]
[pic3.png]

Kim


      On Fri, 13 Nov 2020, Craig Kanalley wrote:

      > Yes, thank you, Kim!
      >
      > For the Estlake researchers - is it fair to say Estlake is a
      > habitational/location-based surname? And if so, even if this is a place
      > Lake alias Estlake, is it reasonable to assume this might still be
      > related to the origin of our family? I wonder if there was a branch
      > that went by Lake instead, for whatever reason..  which would be
      > supported by evidence of our Y-DNA.
      >
      > Craig
      >