Minch

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

the Minch

1. A strait in Scotland, between the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides.

• 1750, Francis Grant, A Letter to a Member of Parliament Concerning the Free British Fisheries‎, page 21:

  The best Place for a Staple [of herrings], would be at Stornway, in one of the Lewis Islands, which is a good Harbour, and there are many good Hands; also it lies open to the Minch, a Sea above sixty Miles over to the main Land of Scotland, to the Southward of which lies the Isle of Sky, …

• 1799, Revd. James Headrick, On the Practicability, and Advantages, of Opening a Navigation Between the Murray Firth at Inverness, and Loch Eil, at Fort William, section II Fisheries, from Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, Volume 1, page 388:

  That extensive bason of sea, called the Great, and the Little Minch; bounded on the west, by that chain of islands, called the Long Island, because they seem but one, when viewed at a distance; on the east, by the indented shores of Scotland: from the butt of the Lewis, to the Mull of Kintire, never fails to be filled, every year, with an immense body of herrings.

• 1960, Ewan MacColl, BBC radio ballad Singing the Fishing (transcript):

  Come all you gallant fishermen,
  That plough the stormy sea
  The whole year round,
  On the fishing grounds
  Of the Northern Minch and the Norway Deeps,
  On the banks and knolls of the North Sea holes,
  Where the herring shoals are found.

• North Minch

• Little Minch

Reduced form of Minnish or Minchin.

Minch (plural Minches)

1. A surname.

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Minch is the 14775^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 2010 individuals. Minch is most common among White (94.93%) individuals.

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Minch”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 594.