Streets History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

Streets is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Streets family once lived in any of a number of places called Street, in Herefordshire, Kent and Somerset. 1

Streets is a local surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Other types of local surnames include topographic surnames, which could be given to a person who lived beside any physical feature, such as a hill, stream, church or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties. The surname Streets comes from the Old English word stræt, which means Roman road. In the Middle Ages, this word came to denote the main street in a village, and so the surname may also refer to someone who lived on the main street. 2 3

Early Origins of the Streets family

The surname Streets was first found in Devon where they held a family seat from ancient times, but by the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273, the name had scattered throughout ancient Britain as those rolls include: Alice de la Strete, Oxfordshire and Alexander de la Strete, Kent. 4

Kirby's Quest listed John atte Strete, Somerset, 1 Edward III (during the first year's reign of Edward III) 5 and the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 listed Elyas del Strete and Alicia del Strete as holding lands there at that time. 4

Some of the family emigrated to Ireland where the name was typically spelt Estrete or Strete and typically were found in Louth and Meath. We note that John Estrete, or Strete (died after 1511) was an Irish judge, author, law lecturer and statesman who held the offices of King's Serjeant, Deputy Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Master of the Coinage of Ireland.

Early History of the Streets family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Streets research. Another 81 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1600, 1621, 1624, 1625, 1650, 1653, 1666, 1670, 1679, 1680, 1689 and 1696 are included under the topic Early Streets History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Streets Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Streets family name include Street, Streat, Strethe, Strete and others.

Early Notables of the Streets family

Notables of the family at this time include Thomas Street (Streete) (1621-1689), an early English astronomer, best known for his book "Astronomia Carolina, a new theorie of Coelestial Motions" which was used as a reference for many years having at least three editions, eponym of the Street lunar crater.William Streat (1600?-1666), was an English divine, born in Devonshire. Thomas Street (1625-1696), was an English judge and politician from Worcester; Robert Streater (1621-1679), an English landscape, history, still-life and portrait artist, architectural painter and etcher, Serjeant Painter to King Charles II; and John Streater (fl. 1650-1670), was an...
Another 97 words (7 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Streets Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Streets Ranking

In the United States, the name Streets is the 11,146^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 6

Migration of the Streets family to Ireland

Some of the Streets family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 30 words (2 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Streets migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Streets surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Streets Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Ann Streets, who landed in Virginia in 1638 7

Streets migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Streets Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Charles Streets, aged 17, who arrived in South Australia in 1854 aboard the ship "Star Queen" 8

Contemporary Notables of the name Streets (post 1700) +

George Streets, American politician, Mayor of Enid, Oklahoma, 1952-55 9

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Smith, Eldson Coles, New Dictionary of American Family Names New York: Harper & Row, 1956. Print
Harrison, Henry, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Company, 2013. Print
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Dickinson, F.H., Kirby's Quest for Somerset of 16th of Edward the 3rd London: Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St, Martin's Lane, 1889. Print.
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
South Australian Register Monday 1st January 1855. (Retrieved 2010, November 5) Star Queen 1854. Retrieved http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/starqueen1854.shtml
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 12) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html