From the quince fruit, or from Latin 'quintus' meaning fifth; also a Shakespearean character.
Quince takes its name from the golden, pear-shaped fruit whose lineage stretches from the ancient Greek city of Kydonia on the island of Crete — giving us the fruit's Latin name, cotoneum, which passed through Old French as 'cooin' before arriving in English. Long before the apple claimed mythology's spotlight, the quince was the golden fruit of antiquity: the ancient Greeks associated it with Aphrodite, and some scholars argue it was a quince — not an apple — that Paris awarded to the goddess of love, setting the Trojan War in motion. Roman brides carried quince to their wedding chambers as a symbol of fidelity and sweet union.
As a given name, Quince is rare and deeply literary, known best as the well-meaning but hopelessly inept carpenter Peter Quince in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the stage director of the mechanicals' play-within-a-play. Shakespeare likely chose the name for its comic earthiness, grounding his craftsman in the world of honest labor and ripe, impractical fruit. In modern usage Quince occupies an appealing niche: botanical names are having a revival, and Quince sits apart from the more commonly chosen Hazel or Jasper.
It carries a tactile, autumnal quality — golden, slightly tart, fragrant — that suits a child meant to be remembered. Its brevity and quirk make it feel simultaneously ancient and strikingly fresh, a name that rewards curiosity.