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The lynch Surname

lynch Name Meaning and History

  1. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Loingsigh ‘descendant of Loingseach’, a personal name meaning ‘mariner’ (from long ‘ship’). This is now a common surname in Ireland but of different local origins, for example chieftain families in counties Antrim and Tipperary, while in Ulster and Connacht there were families called Ó Loingseacháin who later shortened their name to Ó Loingsigh and also Anglicized it as Lynch.
  2. Irish (Anglo-Norman): Anglicized form of Gaelic Linseach, itself a Gaelicized form of Anglo-Norman French de Lench, the version found in old records. This seems to be a local name, but its origin is unknown. One family of bearers of this name was of Norman origin, but became one of the most important tribes of Galway.
  3. English: topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or hillside, Old English hlinc, or perhaps a habitational name from Lynch in Dorset or Somerset or Linch in Sussex, all named with this word.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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lynch Family Facts

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Distribution of lynch Families in the US in 1920
Number of lynch families
 1871-3740
 624-1870
 1-623
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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The lynch name in History

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