quistEtymologyFrom Middle English quiste, quyste, quyshte, variants of Middle English couschot, cowschote, cowscott, from Old English cūsċeote (“wood pigeon, ringdove”). Doublet of cushat.quist means A surname. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 92 out of 100.nameA surname.nounThe wood pigeon, Columba palumbus.“It got me thinking about other names we used to call things when we were younger that for some reason as I got older we stopped doing.¶ For example the common woody was a quist, and the sparrow that we so used to love hunting on the summer hedgerows, once the wheat had been cut, were "spugs or spuggies"”