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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : habitational name from a place in Wiltshire named Clench, from Old English clenc ‘lump’, ‘hill’, which seems also to have been used of a patch of dry raised ground in fenland surroundings. In some cases the surname may be of topographic origin.
  • English : metonymic occupational name for a maker or fixer of bolts and rivets, from Middle English clinch, clench ‘door nail secured by riveting or clinching’, from clench(en) ‘to fix firmly’.

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