Couch (surname)
Couch is a surname. It has two different origins. It is a Cornish name thought to have derived from Cornish "cough" and to have been a nickname for a redheaded man. The Cornish surname appears in 1160 as "Coh" and over the centuries as "Coch," "Cogh," "Cooch," "Cough," "Cuche," "Cowche," "Cowtch," "Coutch," etc., until the spelling became standardized in recent centuries, generally as "Couch." There is also an English name Couch which probably originated as a name for a maker of beds or bedding. The English surname has variant forms Coucha, Couche, Coucher, Couchman and Cowcha.
Notable people with the surname include:
- Alan Couch, Welsh footballer
- Arthur Quiller-Couch, British writer and professor of literature, grandson of Jonathan Couch
- Charles Couch, American politician
- Darius N. Couch, American soldier, businessman, and naturalist
- Ethan Couch, North Texas teenager convicted of killing four pedestrians
- Harvey C. Couch, Arkansas energy entrepreneur and businessman
- James F. Couch Jr., justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals
- Jane Couch, British woman boxer
- John Couch, American football coach
- John H. Couch, American sea captain and pioneer in the Oregon Country in the 19th century
- Jonathan Couch, British naturalist
- Lana Couch, American aerospace engineer
- Mal Couch, American Christian writer
- Marcos Couch, Argentine mountain climber
- Richard Quiller Couch, British naturalist, son of Jonathan Couch
- Rebecca Couch, American painter
- Tim Couch, former NFL quarterback
- Tonia Couch, British Olympic diver
- Warrick Couch, Australian astronomer
- William Couch, leader of the Oklahoma Boomer movement
- William Terry Couch, American intellectual and academic editor