Wink Family History

English:: from Middle English winke a form of winche ‘winch pulley’ (Old English wince) later developing the meaning ‘well’ presumably because a winch would have been used to extract water from a well. The surname is probably for someone who lived by a well.

This may also be a topographic name for someone who lived by a sharp bend in a river or valley from a transferred sense of Middle English winke.

Compare Winch perhaps also a nickname from a further transferred use of the Middle English word in sense 1 above for a lapwing (compare Middle English lapwink ‘lapwing’ Old English hlēapewince) or any bird known for its leaping and twisting flight.

See Winch