Show ContentsCranor History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

An ancient Scottish tribe called the Boernicians were the first to use the surname Cranor. It is a name for a person whose was tall, and had long legs. This nickname derived from the Old English words cranuc, and cornuc, which mean crane.

Early Origins of the Cranor family

The surname Cranor was first found in Suffolk, England, before the name made its way North to Scotland.

"In 1261 an inquest found that a man named Crane had held, by gift of King William the Lion, the lands of Inyaney and the office of gate-keeper of the royal castle, and that he never raised an army or gave assistance or did anything else in the world for the said lands, except gate-keeper of our lord the king's castle of Montrose. Cran and Crann are current in the shires of Aberdeen, Banff, and Inverness, and Patrick Crane is recorded in Aberdeen in 1398. Crane is the spelling used by an old family in the parish of Maryton." 1

Early History of the Cranor family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cranor research. Another 106 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1398 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Cranor History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cranor Spelling Variations

Spelling rules only evolved in the last few centuries with the invention of the printing press and the first dictionaries. Spelling variations are extremely common in names from before that period. Cranor has been spelled Crane, Craine, Crain, Cran, Crann, Crayne and others.

Early Notables of the Cranor family

More information is included under the topic Early Cranor Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cranor Ranking

In the United States, the name Cranor is the 18,748th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 2

Ireland Migration of the Cranor family to Ireland

Some of the Cranor family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 63 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Cranor family

After making their great crossing, many Boernician-Scottish families settled along the east coast of North America. When the War of Independence broke out, United Empire Loyalists moved north to Canada while the rest stayed to fight. The ancestors of many of these Scots still populate the continent. This century, through Clan societies and other Scottish organizations, they began to rediscover their collective national heritage. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Cranor or a variant listed above: Jasper Crane, a passenger on the "Hector," who settled in the New Haven, Colony in 1637; Richard Crane, who arrived in Virginia in 1635; Samuel Crane, who came to Virginia in 1653.


Contemporary Notables of the name Cranor (post 1700) +

  • Ozro N. Cranor (1855-1933), American politician, Member of Indiana State House of Representatives, 1889; Member of Indiana State Senate, 1893-95; Delegate to Michigan State Constitutional Convention 26th District, 1907-08 3
  • Albert H. Cranor, American politician, Mayor of Independence, Kansas, 1956 3


  1. Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
  2. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  3. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 13) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html


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