Chavis
Masculine
Chavis is a surname first and a first name second, and in the American South it is a surname with a specific and unusual history — carried both by one remarkable teacher and by a whole community that has held onto a small set of family names for centuries.
How old is the name Chavis?
Chavis first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Chavis alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 900 people named Chavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chavis most popular?
Chavis peaked in 1980, reaching #1496 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Chavis
Two things make the name worth knowing. The first is a man: John Chavis, a free Black man of the Revolutionary era who studied under a Princeton president, was licensed to preach, and ran a school in North Carolina where he taught white students by day and Black students in the evening — until a state law passed after a rebellion made it illegal for him to preach or teach at all, and he died poor. The second is a community. The Lumbee of eastern North Carolina carry a small, distinctive set of surnames that recur across their families, and this is one of them. A name can identify a people as precisely as a place does, and in this case it has done so through several centuries of official uncertainty about who they were.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The surname's derivation is not established. It appears in Virginia and Carolina records early, and the explanations offered — a French origin, a Spanish one, a worn-down English name — are proposals rather than findings.
Pronouncing Chavis
CHAY-vis
Two syllables, stress at the front. CHA-vis, with a short first vowel, is also used in some families.
Nicknames for Chavis
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
- 1957
- Most boys named
- 198041 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1496reached in 1980
- Change vs 2020
- 0.0%6 in 2024, 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.
Chaviss among us
people named Chavis are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Chavis sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has the settled sound of a real family name rather than an invention.
- It is short, clear and rare as a first name.
- It carries a documented and genuinely admirable namesake.
- It reads as a last name on a form, which is the trade every surname name makes.
- Two pronunciations are in use and he will be asked which.
- There is no settled meaning, only a well-documented history of who has carried it.
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Chavis
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Chaviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Chavis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chavis in 2025?
- Chavis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Chavis with classmates?
- Chavis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chavis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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