Straw
An English and Scottish surname most likely linked to a place-name based on a valley or lowland, though some later writers also connected it with the word for straw.
The #8,356 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,927 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest dictionary evidence here treats Straw as a shortened or altered form of Straith, a Scottish place-name surname. That Straith is linked to Gaelic and Scots strath, meaning a broad valley, river valley, or low-lying plain. Some older writers also associated the name with the English word straw, but that looks secondary or speculative rather than the main origin.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers often grouped Straw with Scottish place-names such as Straith and related forms like Stray. The same sources also note Rackstraw as a separate nickname surname, which shows how easily similar-looking names were cross-connected in older etymologies. In modern use, Straw is a relatively uncommon surname in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One old surname dictionary explicitly says Straw is “the same as Stray,” reflecting how fluid spelling and pronunciation could be in historic records.
From the historical record
“century. STRAW. The same as Straith ; from Straith, a parish of Scot- land, co. Inverness; from Sco. strath, Gael, sratli, a valley, a mountain valley, bottom of a valley, a low-lying country through which a river rolls, the low inhabited part of a country, in contra- distinction to its hilly ground, a dell. Cf.…”
— Ludus Patronymicus; or, the etymology of curious surnames