From a surname which was derived from Old English blæc "black" or blac "pale". A famous bearer of the surname was the poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827). Originally from Old English, the derivation of Blake is unclear. It can either come from ‘blac’, which means dark, or from ‘blaac’, which means fair or pale. Initially, it was used as a surname, the famous bearer being the British poet William Blake, and as a surname it functions until today. In the United States, Blake has recently started being used as a feminine given name, for the rest of the English-speaking world it remains as strictly masculine.
