Garvin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A male first name or family surname of Irish and Scottish origin, borne by various people over the years
2. An Irish or Scottish name used as a masculine given name or as a surname passed down through families
3. A personal name of Gaelic origin that serves as a common male forename or a hereditary family surname

Etymology: Garvin is a personal name and a surname, found mainly in Scotland and Ireland, and it appears to be a Gaelic name rather than a word borrowed from another language. Its most likely source is the Gaelic adjective "garbh", meaning "rough" or "rugged", with a diminutive ending that gives something like "little rough one." That derivation is widely repeated but not certain, and early records of the name are sparse, so the exact sense in its earliest use is hard to pin down. As a surname, Garvin spread through the Scottish Lowlands and Ulster and then travelled with emigrants to North America, where it became common in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its use as a first name rose later, and many bearers have no connection to Gaelic at all. Because the name has no fixed meaning in modern English, its etymology is mainly a story about how an old descriptive Gaelic word became a family name.