Family name origins & meanings
- English and Scottish (of French origin) : habitational name from La Tranche in Poitou, so named from the Old French topographical term trenche, a derivative of the verb trenchier ‘to cut’, which denoted both a ditch and a track cut through a forest. The term is also found in Middle English, and in some cases the surname could be of topographic origin or from minor place, such as The Trench in Kent, named with this word.
- The Trench family that hold the earldom of Clancarty trace their descent from Frederic de la Tranche, who settled in Northumbria from France c.1575. They became established in Ireland in the 17th century, when Frederick Trench went there and purchased an estate in Galway in 1631.