Couch Family History

English (Cornwall and Devon): nickname from Middle English couch(e) ‘hump hunch’ used for a hunchback. In Cornwall and Devon it is usually pronounced as Cooch. English (Cornwall and Devon): variant of Gooch.

English (Cornwall and Devon): from Middle English coche couche ‘bed couch tablecloth’ (Old French couche culche). It could have been a metonymic occupational name for someone who made such items or a nickname for a lazy individual.

Alternatively, it could have been applied to someone who produced couchwork, a luxurious embroidery in which gold or silver thread and jewels were sewn into satin or silk robes.

Welsh: nickname for a red-haired man from cough coch ‘red(-haired)’. Coch may have been taken by Welsh migrants to Devon and Cornwall and confused with the English surname (see above).