Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Sprague
Variants: Spragg, Spragge, Spraggett, Spraggs, Spraguer
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Guild hosted website: sprague.one-name.net
Contact: Mr Richard Weber
The Sprague Database is a computerized database containing information on over 573,000 individuals from worldwide families of Sprague and Sprague-derivative names. The larger sections of the database document the descendants of (1) Francis Sprague, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1623 and (2) Edward Sprague's three sons (Ralph, Richard, and William), who arrived in Massachusetts in 1629. The Spragg and Sprake lines are also major sections. Further, we include over 3,000 Sprague family lines or individuals that do not yet connect to any of the major family lines in the project database. To see these unconnected Sprague and Sprague-derivative lines, please go to Reports and scroll down. The purpose of the Sprague Database is to treat the worldwide Sprague family as a single entity. There are hundreds of people researching their own lines, but until now there has been no organized effort since the work of Dr. Warren Vincent Sprague (Sprague Families in America, published in 1913) to put this work together to benefit future generations. The Sprague Project is unusual in that it places equal emphasis on recording female and male descendant lines. The Sprague Database is an invaluable resource for those interested in the Sprague line.
Variant names include Sprag, Sprage, Spragg, Spragge, Spraggs, Spraggue, Sprags, Sprake, Spraig, Sprig, Sprigg, Sprigge, and Spriggs.
Several of these variant names originate in Great Britain. Spragg and Sprague, for example, have been uniquely located in British records for many decades. However, in North America, these lines have become intermingled as a result of literacy and phonetic confusion. Ongoing research into these lines in Great Britain show some name intermingling as well.
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Main GB location 1881: Devon
English: see Spragg.
Early bearers:
Hewghe Spragg, 1612 in IGI (Axminster, Devon); Nicholas Sprague or Sprake, 1663, John Sprague, 1687, Richard Sprague, 1778 in IGI (Sandford, Devon).
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Spragge
• Current frequencies: GB 41, Ireland 0
• GB frequency 1881: 36
• Main GB location 1881: Devon
English: see Spragg and compare Sprague.
Spragg
Variants: Spragge, Sprague, Spraggs
• Current frequencies: GB 1472, Ireland 10
• GB frequency 1881: 831
• Main GB location 1881: West Midlands: esp. Worcestershire
English: nickname, relationship name from Middle English *sprag ‘brisk, energetic’, a variant of Sprake with voicing of the -k- , and which survives in the 19th-century dialect word spragg ‘lively, ingenious’. It was occasionally used in the 12th century as personal name, recorded as Spreg’ , about 1177–86 (15th-cent. copy) in Yorks Charters. Compare Spraggon.
Reginald Sprag, 1303 in Feudal Aids (Suffolk); Anne Spragg, 1561, Robert Spragg, 1727, Edward Spragg, 1812 in IGI (Offenham, Worcs); Thomas Sprage, 1567 in IGI (Mendlesham, Suffolk); Zipporah Sprags, 1830, Anthony Sprague, 1832 in IGI (Redditch, Worcs).
References:
English Dialect Dictionary; Fellows Jensen, Scand. Personal Names, p. 261.
Spragg =====================
Sprake
Variants: Sprakes, Spragg, Sprague, Spragge, Spraggs, Spark
• Current frequencies: GB 416, Ireland 4
• GB frequency 1881: 262
• Main GB location 1881: Dorset, Hants, IoW, and Somerset
English: (i) nickname primarily from Middle English sprak ‘energetic, brisk’, perhaps a borrowing of Old Scandinavian sprækr . Compare dialect sprack ’brisk, lively’, found widely in 19th-century England, including Dorset, Hants, and Somerset, and the surname Spragg. (ii) nickname, perhaps from a metathesized form of Middle English spark ‘fiery particle’. See Spark, with which Sprake may sometimes have been confused in form and sense.
English Dialect Dictionary.
Not all of the Sprague origins are proven to be from Great Britain. The oldest Sprague recorded in New England is Francis Sprague who arrived in 1623 at Duxbury, Massachusetts. It has been commonly and mistakenly recorded that Francis was a fourth brother of Ralph, Richard and William Sprague who were sons of Edward Sprague and who arrived in New England in 1629. Unproven but possible is that Francis left Leiden, Holland as a part of the religious persecution movement, traveled to England merely as a launching point for relocation to New England.
Other Sprague line originated in other countries such as Russia and Canada with other surnames but who then adopted the surname of Sprague.
Richard Sprak, 1327 in Subsidy Rolls (Suffolk); Roberto Sprake, 1327 in Subsidy Rolls (Nether Compton, Dorset); William Sprake, 1327–8 in New Forest Documents (Ford, Hants); Jeremias Sprake, 1579, Israel Sprake, 1681 in IGI (Chardstock, Dorset); Mary Sprake, 1586 in IGI (Thorncombe, Dorset); Susan Sprake, 1610 in IGI (Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset); Hannah Sprake, 1697 in IGI (Winsham, Somerset); Eliz. Sprake, 1743 in IGI (Brockhampton, Hants); Elizabeth Sprake, 1760 in IGI (Chale, IoW).
There are 27,122 people in the U.S. with the last name Sprague. Statistically the 1466th most popular last name.
The content of the Sprague Database is found at: http://sprague.one-name.net