Arches Family History

From Arques-la-Bataille in Offranville (Seine-Maritime), which is recorded as (de) Archis in 1024, or possibly from Pont-de-l'Arche (Eure), recorded as Archas in the 11th century. These place-names derive from Latin arca, meaning ‘arch bridge’ (Old French arche, northern Norman and Picard Old French arque).

Arques in Pas-de-Calais has also been suggested as a potential source of some of the Norman family names; however, there is no evidence of it being pronounced as Arches, the regular form of the surname in England. It is recorded as Arkae in the 7th century and Ariaco in the 9th century, which may derive from Celtic *Ariācon, meaning ‘territory of a man called Arios’.

Arches was sometimes reduced to Arch, and the variant form Darches, with a fused preposition as in Simon Darches alias de Arches (1316-17 in TNA, Bucks), may have been reduced to Darch.

This variant could possibly be a form of Arch with a post-medieval excrescent -s, but Arch itself may be a reduced form of the name mentioned earlier.