Sink
A surname likely from the common word for a sink or hollow, though some cases may be linked to other names or nickname forms.
The #6,331 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 57,302 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Sink is most likely English in form and probably arose as a descriptive nickname from the common word "sink," meaning a hollow, low place, or drain. In older English and related dialects, words like this could be used for topographic nicknames, especially for someone living near a depression in the ground or a drainage feature. Some 19th-century writers also grouped Sink with surnames that looked like shortened or altered forms of other names, so not every bearer necessarily comes from the same source.
History
The name appears in U.S. records and was noted by early surname writers as one of several short surnames beginning with Sin-. Because the form is very brief, it may have been reinforced in America by spelling simplification or by independent adoption from a descriptive term. The evidence in the historical excerpts is indirect rather than a direct dictionary entry for the surname itself.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A 19th-century surname compiler listed Sink alongside names like Faller and Fallman as part of a cluster of surnames suggesting downward motion or low places.
From the historical record
“VENNELL > or in an Alley [North. E. vennel, VENNALlJ a gutter, sink; also Scot, venall, an alley — M.Fr. venelle, a small street, alley ; f. Lat. vena, a vein, watercourse]”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)