Trench Family History

English and Scottish: from Middle English trench ‘path cut through woods; cutting or ditch’ (Old French trenche a derivative of trenchier ‘to cut hack slice’). The surname may be topographic for someone who lived by a path or ditch or habitational from a place so named such as Trench Lane in Huddington (Worcestershire), Trench in Ellesmere (Shropshire), or The Trench in Hildenborough (Kent).

It may perhaps also be a nickname for someone who cut ditches. Irish (of French origin): habitational name from La Tranche (Poitou).