Critchard Family History

from a derivative of either Old French crochu ‘bent hooked misshapen’ or Old French croche ‘crook hook crutch’ + the pejorative suffix -ard perhaps for someone who was physically bent or crooked or who used a crutch.

The development of Crochard to Cruchard is comparable with the alternation of crotch and crutch in early Modern English (see OED).

The unrounding of the vowel in Crutchard to produce Critchard also occurs in some Devon place-names; see Place-Names of Devon p. xxxiv.