Trays Family History

Variant of Tray with post-medieval -s. For the WR Yorks name see Trees. Perhaps from Treix (Haute-Marne) or from one of several places named Trie in Oise (Picardy), but the absence of a preposition in any of the early surname forms makes this an uncertain origin.

The place-names derive from Frankish thresk ‘fallow land’. Perhaps from Middle English trays treys (Old French trais) denoting either one of a pair of ropes by which a harnessed animal pulls its load or the whole harness of a draught animal or a team of harnessed horses or something pulled by a horse, perhaps a sledge.