Trask

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, borne by people such as the fictional Trask family in John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden
2. An English surname, carried by various people and familiar mainly through the Trask family in Steinbeck's East of Eden
3. A surname of English origin, notably associated with the Trask characters of John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden

Etymology: Trask is best known today as a surname, and its roots lie in a place name rather than in any common English word. It is a variant of Thirsk, the name of a market town in North Yorkshire, England. Surnames of this kind were often taken from the places where a family lived or came from, so the family name records a connection to that town. The spelling shift from Thirsk to Trask shows how regional and hand-written variation could reshape a name over the centuries. Written forms of names were not standardised in medieval and early modern England, so one family could spell its name in several ways. Trask is one of the forms that settled into use as a distinct surname.