Burch
Usually a shortened or altered form of Birch, the tree-name surname.
The #958 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 8,513 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Burch is generally understood as a spelling variant or reduced form of Birch, the English surname from the birch tree. The underlying word comes from Old English and refers to the birch tree itself, so the name likely began as a topographic or descriptive byname for someone who lived near birches or in a birch-lined place. Some 19th-century writers also treated Burch as simply an alternate spelling of Birch.
History
The surname appears in English records in forms that overlap with Birch and related names such as Burchill and Burchell. In later centuries it remained established as a family name in Britain and was carried to North America, where both Burch and Burtch became common enough to be recorded separately. The historical sources here consistently point back to Birch rather than to an independent origin for Burch.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A number of older surname lists group Burch right alongside tree-based names like Ash, Pine, Beech, and Holly, showing how common nature surnames were in English naming.
From the historical record
“BURBIDGB. See Burbage. BURCH. See Birch. BURCHARD. Burchard, Burchardus, &c., a personal name in Domesda}-. BURCHATT. BURCHETT. See Bur- chard. BURDEN. See Burdon. BURDER. A bird-catcher, formerly Avritten Byrder. See a quaint anecdote in”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom