The English surname Finch, found predominantly in Lancashire, may be an occupational name for a breeder of finches or for one who caught finches and sold them as songsters. The name may also be a nickname for a colorful person or one with a beautiful singing voice. Records of the name date to the early 13th Century when Gilbert le Finch is recorded in the Curia Regis Rolls of Norfolk in 1205. Frances Finch was recorded as being in the Virginia Colony in 1620, before the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in the same year. Today there are approximately 30,000 bearers of the surname Finch living in the United States.