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’.