Gavin
Masculine · “most often read as "hawk of May”
Gavin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 189,270 boys against 395 girls since 1880.
Gavin is the Scots form of Gawain, the knight of the Round Table whose story English readers have been retelling since the fourteenth century. It is two beats, both short and clean, with no silent letters and nothing to explain at the door. Few names manage to be that plain on paper and still carry a green chapel behind them.
How old is the name Gavin?
Gavin first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Gavin alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 186,000 people named Gavin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gavin most popular?
Gavin peaked in 2008, reaching #30 nationally. Today it ranks #303, 273 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gwalchmai to Gavin
The story of Gavin
The knight appears in Welsh tradition as Gwalchmai, in the Latin and French romances as Walwanus and Gauvain, and in Middle English as Gawain — the hero of the late fourteenth-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Scotland took the French form and wore it down to Gavin, which was in ordinary use there for centuries as a plain given name rather than a literary flourish. From Scotland it traveled with emigrants to England, Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand. It arrived on American birth records early in the twentieth century, stayed quiet for decades, then rose steeply toward the end of it and is now easing back down again.
Meaningscholars disagree
most often read as "hawk of May"
The usual derivation traces Gawain to the Welsh name Gwalchmai, understood as gwalch "hawk" plus Mai "May" — hence "hawk of May." Scholars have also proposed Gwalchgwyn, "white hawk," and some argue the medieval French Gauvain came from a different source entirely and was only later matched up with the Welsh name. The hawk element is the steadiest part of the picture; the rest is genuinely open.
How the name formed
- Gwalchmai
- Gauvain
- Gawain
- Gavin
Related forms: Gwalchmai · Gauvain · Gawain · Galvano · Walewein · Walwanus
Pronouncing Gavin
GAV-in
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the short a of "have." Some Scottish and Irish speakers give the second syllable a fuller vowel, closer to GAV-een, but GAV-in is the standard American reading and almost nobody gets it wrong on sight.
Nicknames for Gavin
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 200711,863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #30reached in 2008
- Change vs 2023
- −25.7%1,125 in 2025, from 1,515
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.
Gavin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwalchmai in Welsh — related form
- Gauvain in French — same name
- Gawain in English (older) — same name
- Galvano in Italian — related form
- Walewein in Dutch (medieval) — related form
- Walwanus in Latin — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Gavins among us
people named Gavin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,518 born in 2025 was named Gavin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patrick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gavin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patrick climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patrick's path sketches the road Gavin is walking now.
Gavin is coming down from a big peak (#30 in 2008). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Gavin is headed
Gavin is easing off slowly — about 27% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Gavin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gavin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One dominant spelling that English speakers read correctly at first glance, and a pronunciation with no regional traps in American use.
- A documented line back through medieval French and Welsh literature, with the Arthurian connection still recognizable to readers.
- Cognate forms exist across French, Italian, Dutch and Welsh, so the name is not stranded in English.
- Two syllables and a firm consonant ending, which sits easily beside both one-syllable and longer surnames.
- Gav is a ready-made short form with centuries of use behind it, rather than one that has to be invented.
- It rose fast and is now stepping back, which means most Gavins in the US are clustered around one stretch of years. For a while the name may read as belonging to young adults rather than to babies — though that gap closes as any name settles.
- Gavyn, Gaven and Gavan all circulate, so expect the occasional spelling check even though your version is the standard one.
- It sits close to Gavriel, Gabriel and the surname Galvin in casual speech, and a mumbled introduction can land on the wrong one.
- The Arthurian Gawain is the same name, but the connection is not obvious to most people. If that history is part of why you like it, you will find yourself explaining it.
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What they receive
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Gavin
Masculine · #303 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gavins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 186,000 people named Gavin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gavin in 2025?
- Gavin ranks #303 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,125 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gavin?
- About 1 in every 1,518 US boys born in 2025 was named Gavin — 1,125 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gavin with classmates?
- Gavin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gavin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Angelo#304 · Luciano#305 · Romeo#301 · Archie#301 · Ali#306 · Clayton#300 · Preston#299 · Remington#307
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gavin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gavin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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