Balchs or Balches?

In my copy of the "Balch Family in America" by Galusha B. Balch (pub 1897), the plural of Balch is Balches. For more a modern interpretation of usage, I extracted the following from Spelling: Noun Plurals (the Purdue OWL resources are an excellent writing resource):

Plurals of nouns can be created in the following ways:
1. Add an -s to form the plural of most words.
elephant--elephants
stereo--stereos

2. For words that end in a "hissing" sound (-s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh), add
an -es to form the plural.
box--boxes
church--churches

So the answer might depend on how you pronounce the name. I've heard many ways to say "Balch" and most side with #2. All in all, it would appear that Galusha got it right.

My wife reminds me, with a grin, that, in the Caribbean islands where we live, the proper plural is "Balch dem."

I hope this brings some peace to the Balches in your home. :-)

This page is maintained by Charles V. Balch, charlie@balch.org.

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