Old English goldfinc; see gold (adj.) + finch. So called for its yellow wing markings. Compare German Goldfink.
Entries linking to goldfinch
gold adj.
c. 1200, from gold (n.); compare golden. In reference to the color of the metal, it is recorded from c. 1400. Gold rush is attested from 1859, originally in an Australian context. Gold medal as first prize is from 1757. Gold record, a framed, gold phonograph record to commemorate a certain level of sales, is from 1948.
Joe Grady and Ed Hurst, WPEN disk jockey team, will be given a gold record by Mercury of the one-millionth copy of Frankie Lane's waxing of That's My Desire, January 10, for having done so much to plug the platter in these parts [Philadelphia]. [Billboard magazine, Jan. 10, 1948]
finch n.
common European bird, Old English finc "finch," from Proto-Germanic *finkiz "finch" (source also of Middle Low German and Middle Dutch vinke, Dutch vink, Old High German finco, German Fink), perhaps imitative of the bird's note (compare Breton pint "chaffinch," Russian penka "wren").