Family name origins & meanings
- English (mainly Devon) : nickname for a chirpy person, from Middle English pinch, pink ‘(chaf)finch’. Compare Finch.
- English (mainly Devon) : possibly a metonymic occupational name from Middle English pinche ‘pleated fabric’, from Middle English pinche(n) ‘to pinch (pastry)’, ‘to pleat (fabric)’, ‘to crimp (hair, etc.)’, also ‘to cavil’, ‘to be niggardly’.