Gavin
- Pronunciation
- [Ga-vin]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- White Hawk
- Origin
- Scottish
About the Name Gavin
Gavin descends from the medieval Welsh Gawain — also rendered Gauvain in Old French and Gawayne in medieval English — the name of one of the most prominent knights of King Arthur's Round Table. In the medieval Arthurian tradition, Sir Gawain is portrayed as Arthur's nephew, his foremost champion, and the protagonist of the 14th-century English alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — one of the major works of medieval English literature.
The Welsh name's etymology is contested. The most credible reading derives Gawain from Gwalchmei meaning "hawk of May" or "falcon of May" — composed of gwalch (hawk) and Mai (May). The Sir Gawain of medieval romance is consistently characterized by his honor, his courtesy toward women, and his solar-light register (he was said to be strongest at midday, weakest at midnight) — features that have given the name a specifically chivalric-knightly tonal layer.
The name was rare in pre-modern English-language naming but emerged in 20th-century American naming partly through Scottish-American immigration and partly through the romantic-medieval cultural revival. Notable bearers include British actor Gavin MacLeod (1931–2021, who played Captain Stubing on The Love Boat for nine seasons), American politician Gavin Newsom (Governor of California, 2019–present), and various contemporary musicians. Gavin climbed into the US top 50 boys' rank by 2008 and has held a top-100 range since. The name's appeal is its layered Arthurian-medieval register combined with two short syllables that read as both vintage and modern. Common nicknames Gav, Gabe (alternate, related to Gabriel), and the rare Vinny each carry distinct registers. International forms include Gauvain (Old French), Gawan (Polish), and the original Welsh Gwalchmei.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Gavin
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Gavin by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2007 with 11,863 boys named Gavin (boy rank #32 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #303 for boys (1,125 US births). That's 271 places below its 2007 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Gavin Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Gavin the strongest states are Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | #73 | 44 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | #87 | 166 |
| 3 | Wyoming | #101 | 25 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #103 | 1,391 |
| 5 | Alaska | #107 | 40 |
| 6 | Maine | #113 | 118 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #113 | 643 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #115 | 341 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | #116 | 108 |
| 10 | Delaware | #116 | 94 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #267 | 152 |
| 2 | Arkansas | #254 | 161 |
| 3 | Alabama | #243 | 274 |
| 4 | California | #235 | 2,267 |
| 5 | Texas | #235 | 1,847 |
| 6 | Louisiana | #234 | 297 |
| 7 | New Mexico | #228 | 89 |
| 8 | Oregon | #221 | 241 |
| 9 | Georgia | #215 | 671 |
| 10 | Tennessee | #207 | 477 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Gavin in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Gavin
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Gavin.
- Gavin Rossdale — Rock Singer (1965)
Looking for names like Gavin?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Gavin to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Gavin against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).