Family name origins & meanings
- German, Slovenian, English, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname for a lively and cheerful person, or, in the case of the Jewish name, an ornamental name, from a Germanic word meaning ‘finch’ (see Finch). As a Slovenian surname, it may also be a translation into German of the Slovenian surname Šinkovec (from an old spelling of ščinkovec or ščinkavec ‘finch’).