Family name origins & meanings
- English (West Midlands) : of uncertain origin; perhaps a topographic name for someone who lived by a bank or raised piece of ground, Middle English benche (from Old English benc ‘bench’). This transferred sense of the word is not well attested, however, and some other sense of the word may be in question; perhaps one who sat on a bench in a hall, i.e. a retainer.
- Possibly an altered spelling of German Bensch.