Recorded in many spelling forms including Winchecomb, Winchcomb, Winchcombe, and the short forms of Winscam, Winscom, Winscum, and others, this is an English surname. It is locational and originates from the ancient village of Winchcombe in the county of Gloucester, a place which is recorded in some of the very earliest of all surviving charters of England. This village whose name translates as 'remote valley', appears in the register of documents in the British Museum known as 'Cartulium Saxonicum', for the year 816 a.d.. This was in the spelling of 'Wincelcumba', not so far from the modern forms. The surname is much later, like all surnames. Few hereditary names are to be found before the 12th century, and most are from the 14th, to as late as the 18th century, in some rare examples. Furthermore locational names being 'from' names are often not recorded in the area of their original homestead at all. This is not quite case here, the surname is well recorded in the Gloucester village of Painswick from Elizabethan times, with John Wynchcombe marrying Alyse Whittinge there on Februay 11th 1594. Other examples include: John Winskum at the church of St Katherines by the Tower (of London) on April 13th 1595, Susanna Winscom, the daughter of Robert Winscom, christened at St Giles Cripplegate, in the city of London, on June 6th 1711, and Jasper Winscomb, a witness at St Botolphs Bishopgate, also in the city of London, on July 4th 1724.