Purvis
Masculine · “provisions”
Purvis names a job that no longer exists in the form that created it: the man responsible for making sure a great household had food. It is one of a small group of surnames that describe not a craft but an office, and it turns up as a first name in America at the very start of the twentieth century, when parents were mining surnames for sons.
How old is the name Purvis?
Purvis first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Purvis alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 400 people named Purvis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Purvis most popular?
Purvis peaked in 1905, reaching #1002 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Anglo-Norman purveis: provisions, and the man answerable for them to Purvis
The story of Purvis
A medieval household of any size ran on provisioning, and the man who did it held real power: he decided what was bought, from whom, and at what price, and he answered for the shortfall. The word for his work was also the word for the goods, which is how the name came about. At the top of that system sat something less benign. Royal purveyance was the crown's right to take food, carts and fodder for the king's household at a price the crown itself set, and it was resented for centuries — Magna Carta has clauses aimed squarely at it, and Parliament finally abolished it after the civil wars. So the name sits on both sides of an old quarrel. It belonged to men who kept ordinary households fed, and it belonged to the office that could arrive in a village and simply take what it needed.
Meaning
provisions; the man who supplied them
The word behind the name is Anglo-Norman purveis, provisions or supplies, and the surname was given to whoever was responsible for them — in a monastery, a castle or a large estate. It is an occupational name of a particular kind: it does not describe a skill the man had but a duty he was answerable for. Surname scholarship is in agreement on this derivation, which is unusual enough among short surnames to be worth saying plainly.
How the name formed
- Anglo-Norman purveis: provisions, and the man answerable for them
- Becomes a surname in England and lowland Scotland
- Magna Carta restricts the crown's right of purveyance
- Parliament abolishes purveyance after the civil wars
- American parents take the surname as a first name for sons
Related forms: Purviss · Purves
Pronouncing Purvis
PUR-viss
Stress on the first syllable, the second reduced almost to a hiss. The final s belongs to the word itself and is not a plural, though it will be read as one by anyone who assumes the name is a family name being pluralised.
Nicknames for Purvis
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 192127 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1002reached in 1905
- Change vs 1991
- +16.7%7 in 1996, 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.
Purvis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Purviss in English — spelling variant
- Purves in Scots — spelling variant
Purviss among us
people named Purvis 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
Purvis 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
- Distinctive without being invented — the word behind it is documented and old
- Two firm syllables that carry well and do not blur on a telephone
- A surname-name with an actual meaning, which most surname-names do not have
- The short form Purv has an unpleasant association in American English, and a child will meet it at school whether or not the family ever uses it.
- The name now reads as a surname first, so introductions will regularly produce the question of whether it is the given name or the family one.
- It belongs to a generation now in old age, which gives it either dignity or dust depending on the room.
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Purvis
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Purviss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Purvis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Purvis in 2025?
- Purvis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Purvis with classmates?
- Purvis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Purvis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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