An Irish name, Lynch, which meant ‘mariner.’ It comes from the term long which means ‘ship’. Lynch is a very common surname in Ireland. The original Irish or Gaelic spelling was O’Loingsigh. The English name Lynch was for someone who lived on a slope or hillside. This comes from the Old English hlinc. There are place names of Lynch in Dorset and Linch in Sussex county.

Other spellings include Clynch and MacGlinchy.

The main origin for the Lynch surname is Ireland followed by England and Scotland.

The main work for those of the Lynch families was as farmers in the 1880s.

The county of Lancashire and in the London area appears the most surname of Lynch. In Scotland the county of Lanarkshire has the higher numbers of Lynch families. In the United States most with the Lynch surname lived in New York and Massachusetts.

Famous: Angela Lynch (Mayor of Galway, Ireland in 1989 and 1998), Brian Lynch (jazz musician), George Lynch (professional basketball player), Jane Lynch (actress), Kenny Lynch (English singer and actor), Patricio Lynch (Chilean Rear-Admiral), Robert Clyde Lynch (medical physician who developed the Lynch operation), Shane Lynch (Irish singer), Thomas Lynch Jr. (18th century - signed U.S. Declaration of Independence), John Lynch (actor from Northern Ireland), Patrick J. Lynch (artist and author) and Edward Francis Lynch (Australian World War One veteran and author).