TRAN Family History

This interesting surname may be a metonymic occupational name for a trapper or hunter, deriving from the Middle English "trayne", Old French "traine" meaning "guile", "trickery", "a trap or snare for catching wild animals". Recordings include one Robert Trayne (1243), "The Assize Rolls of Durham". Secondly, it is a nickname for a person bearing a fancied resemblance to the bird the crane, deriving from the Old Norse "trani" meaning "crane". Recordings of this include Richard Trane (1301), "The Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire", and Thomas Tran (1458) a charter witness at the burgh of irvina.