Cavin
Masculine
Calvin, Gavin and Kevin differ by one consonant each, and all three are real names with separate histories. Cavin sits in the middle of that triangle without belonging to any of them, which is exactly what makes it hard to place: it is a minimal pair with three different names at once.
How old is the name Cavin?
Cavin first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Cavin alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 1,300 people named Cavin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cavin most popular?
Cavin peaked in 1981, reaching #1225 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,685 places below that high. See the whole 1981 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Cavin
Calvin is worth following because it shows how a name can be manufactured out of Latin grammar. Jean Cauvin, born at Noyon in 1509, Latinized his surname to Calvinus in the scholarly fashion of his generation, and the English form Calvin is that Latin back in the vernacular. The surname itself means bald, from Latin calvus. His contemporaries did the same thing: Philipp Schwartzerdt became Melanchthon by translating black earth into Greek; Johannes Hausschein became Oecolampadius, house lamp; Gerard de Kremer, a merchant's son, became Mercator; Georg Bauer became Agricola, both meaning farmer. A whole generation of European intellectuals therefore appears in the record under names their families never used, and several of those invented names went on to become ordinary given names centuries later. Cavin's nearest neighbor is one of them.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Cavin has no settled source. It is most likely a blend or respelling of Calvin, Gavin or Kevin, all of which are established and all of which it differs from by a single letter. Calvin is French Cauvin, from Latin calvus, bald; Gavin is a Scottish form of Gawain, of disputed Welsh origin; Kevin is Irish Caoimhin, from caomh, gentle. A rarer Irish surname Cavin also exists. The peak is 1981.
Pronouncing Cavin
KAV-in
Two syllables, stress on the first. Cavin rhymes with Gavin, not with Calvin, and the initial C is hard.
Nicknames for Cavin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1954
- Most boys named
- 200951 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1225reached in 1981
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%8 in 2025, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cavin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Calvin in English — related form
- Gavin in English — related form
- Kevin in English — related form
Cavins among us
people named Cavin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Cavin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cavin
- #8910
- Cavin on the 2025 chart
- #888
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cavin went to 8 boys in 2025, but Kavin and Kavyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 40, which makes it the 888th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,022 places above the chart.
- Kavin27
- Cavin8
- Kavyn5
About 1 boy in 42,702 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 213,510 for Cavin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lionell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cavin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lionell climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lionell's path sketches the road Cavin is walking now.
Cavin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cavin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cavin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters, easy to say on first sight.
- Vin and Cav both work as short forms.
- The sound pattern is completely familiar.
- Three much commoner names differ from it by one letter each.
- It will be heard as a mishearing of one of them.
- The initial C could be read as an s by readers expecting Cecil.
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Cavin
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cavins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Cavin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cavin?
- Cavin is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kavin is the more common one — 27 births in 2025 against 8 for Cavin.
- How popular is the name Cavin in 2025?
- Cavin ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cavin?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Cavin — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cavin with classmates?
- Cavin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cavin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cavin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cavin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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