Gavin is a male given name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

. It is the late medieval form of the name Gawain

Gawain

Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...

, which in turn is believed to have originated from the Welsh name Gwalchgwn, meaning "White Hawk." Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his...

 is an epic poem connected with King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

's Round Table

Round Table

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...

.
Gavin also shares an origin with the Italian name Gavino, which dates back to ancient Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

. Saint Gavin (San Gavino, Porto Torres

San Gavino, Porto Torres

The Basilica di San Gavino is a protoRomanesque church in Porto Torres, Sardinia, Italy. A former cathedral, it is now a place for the veneration of local martyrs and a parish church.-History:...

, Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

) was an early Christian martyr, an ex Roman centurion, decapitated in 300 AD and whose head was thrown in the Mediterranean sea before being reunited with his body.

Famous people named Gavin

• Gavin Crawford
  Gavin Crawford
  Gavin Crawford is a Canadian comedian and actor, best known for The Gavin Crawford Show and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Crawford is a graduate of the BFA Acting Program at the University of British Columbia...
  
  , Canadian comedian and actor.
• Gavin Crawford
  Gavin Crawford (footballer)
  Gavin Crawford was a Scottish footballer.Born in Kilmarnock, Crawford started playing for local junior sides before joining Sheffield United in 1890 from Glasgow side Fairfield Rangers. After a single season with the Blades, Crawford moved to London to join Woolwich Arsenal, becoming the first...
  
  , a Scottish footballer.
• Gavin DeGraw
  Gavin DeGraw
  Gavin Shane DeGraw is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is known for his songs "Chariot", "Follow Through", "I Don't Want to Be" , "In Love with a Girl", and "Not Over You".-Early life:DeGraw grew up in the Catskills in South Fallsburg,...
  
  , American singer-songwriter and musician
• Gavin Ewart
  Gavin Ewart
  Gavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...
  
  , British poet
• Gavin Fingleson
  Gavin Fingleson
  Gavin Fingleson is an Australian switch hitting former professional baseball player. Primarily a second baseman, he has also played designated hitter, third base and first base.-Early life:...
  
  , South African-born Australian Olympic-silver-medal-winning baseball player
• Gavin Floyd
  Gavin Floyd
  Gavin Christopher Floyd is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. He stands 6' 5" tall, weighs 220 pounds, and throws and bats right-handed.-Philadelphia Phillies:...
  
  , American MLB Pitcher for the Chicago White Sox
• Gavin Greig
  Gavin Greig
  Gavin Greig was a folksong collector, playwright and teacher.He edited James Scott Skinner's biggest collection of music, The Harp & Claymore Collection, providing harmonies for Skinner's compositions, and he was jointly responsible for compiling The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, with the Rev...
  
  , collector of Scottish folk songs
• Gavin Griffin
  Gavin Griffin
  Gavin Griffin is an American professional poker player. He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas....
  
  , American professional poker player
• Gavin Harrison
  Gavin Harrison
  Gavin Harrison is a British drummer and percussionist. He is best known for playing with the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree which he joined in 2002. As of 2008, he also plays with the band King Crimson....
  
  , drummer for the rock band Porcupine Tree
  Porcupine Tree
  Porcupine Tree is a progressive rock band formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Their music is difficult to categorise, being associated with both psychedelic rock and progressive rock, yet having been influenced by trance, krautrock and ambient due to Steven...
  
  
• Gavin Hastings
  Gavin Hastings
  Andrew Gavin Hastings, OBE is a former Scotland rugby union player. He is frequently considered one of the best, if not the best, rugby player to come out of Scotland. His nickname is "Big Gav".Hastings was born in Edinburgh...
  
  , Scottish rugby union player
• Gavin Hayes lead singer to the rock band Dredg
• Gavin Henson
  Gavin Henson
  Gavin Lloyd Henson is a Welsh rugby union player, born in Pencoed, South Wales, currently playing for Cardiff Blues.He attracted much media attention as part of a Wales national team which achieved Grand Slams in the Six Nations Championship in 2005 and 2008...
  
  , Welsh International Rugby player
• Gavin Lovegrove
  Gavin Lovegrove
  Gavin Brian Lovegrove was a javelin thrower from New Zealand, who twice represented his native country at the Summer Olympics,...
  
  , New Zealand javelin thrower
• Gavin Maxwell
  Gavin Maxwell
  Gavin Maxwell FRSL, FIAL, FZS , FRGS was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his work with otters. He wrote the book Ring of Bright Water about how he brought an otter back from Iraq and raised it in Scotland...
  
  , Scottish naturalist and author
• Gavin MacLeod
  Gavin MacLeod
  Gavin MacLeod is an American actor most notable for playing Happy Haines on McHale's Navy, Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Captain Merrill Stubing on The Love Boat...
  
  , actor, best known for role as captain of The Love Boat
• Gavin "Spinner" Mason
  Spinner Mason
  Gavin Reginald "Spinner" Mason, is a fictional high-school graduate in Degrassi: The Next Generation, portrayed by Shane Kippel.-Characterization:...
  
  , a fictional character in Degrassi: The Next Generation
• Gavin McInnes
  Gavin McInnes
  Gavin Miles McInnes is a Canadian writer, musician, and comedian. Referred to as "The Godfather of hipsterdom" and "the primary architect of hipsterdom" McInnes is often well known in the contemporary hipster movement mostly via Vice Magazine’s “DOs & DON’Ts” column.- Early life :McInnes was born...
  
  , founder of Vice Magazine
• Gavin Meadows
  Gavin Meadows
  Gavin Meadows is a former international freestyle swimmer for England and Great Britain.Meadows competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics for Great Britain...
  
  , British freestyle swimmer
• Gavin Newsom
  Gavin Newsom
  Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
  
  , Lieutenant Governor of California
• Gavin Rae
  Gavin Rae
  Gavin Paul Rae is a Scottish international footballer, who currently plays for Scottish First Division club Dundee. Rae started his career with Dundee, making over 200 league appearances for the club. He moved to Rangers in January 2004, but struggled to hold down a regular place in their team due...
  
  , Scottish footballer
• Gavin Rossdale
  Gavin Rossdale
  Gavin McGregor Rossdale is an English musician, known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Bush as well as an actor. Following Bush's separation in 2002, which lasted for eight years, he was the lead singer and guitarist for Institute, and later began a solo career. He...
  
  , of the band Bush
• Gavin Stephens
  Gavin Stephens
  Gavin Bernard Michael Stephens is a Canadian stand-up comedian, writer and actor.In 1998, Gavin was nominated for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award. From 2003 to 2007, Gavin was a writer and performer on 5 seasons of CTV's Comedy Inc.. He has filmed two episodes of CTV's Comedy Now! both in...
  
  , a Canadian comedian, writer and actor.
• Gavin Smith (poker player), Canadian professional poker
  Poker
  Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
  
   player
• Gavin Smith (racing driver)
  Gavin Smith (racing driver)
  Gavin Smith is a racing driver from Dublin, born on September 15, 1977. He won Ireland's Fiat Punto championship in 1998, winning 12 times, before trying single-seaters for the next year. In 2000 he was in British Formula Renault, before moving up to the Scholarship class of Formula 3.However, it...
  
  , an auto racing
  Auto racing
  Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
  
   driver from Dublin
• Gavin Strang
  Gavin Strang
  Gavin Steel Strang is a British politician who served in the House of Commons for forty years , representing Edinburgh East in the Labour interest. He served as a minister in the 1974-1979 government under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan as well as in the Cabinet under Tony Blair...
  
  , British politician

Gavin is also a surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

:

• Charles Gavin
  Charles Gavin
  Charles de Souza Gavin is a drummer and musical producer, whose fame comes mainly from his drums works at Brazilian rock band Titãs.- Biography :...
  
   (born in 1960), Brazilian drummer/producer
• Diarmuid Gavin
  Diarmuid Gavin
  Diarmuid Gavin is an Irish garden designer and television personality. He is married to Justine Keane, daughter of The Hon. Ronan Keane, the former Chief Justice of Ireland, and Terry Keane, and they have a daughter named Eppie born December 2004.-Early life:When he was six, his younger brother...
  
   (born in 1964), Irish garden designer and television personality
• Frankie Gavin (boxer)
  Frankie Gavin (boxer)
  Frankie Raymond Gavin is a British professional boxer from Birmingham who, whilst an amateur, won the gold medal at the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships to become English boxing's first ever World Amateur champion....
  
  , English boxer
• Frankie Gavin (Irish fiddle player)
• James M. Gavin
  James M. Gavin
  James Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was a prominent Lieutenant General in the United States Army during World War II...
  
   (1907-1991), American general
  • Gavin Power Plant
    Gavin Power Plant
    General James M. Gavin Power Plant is a 2.6-Gigawatt coal-fired power station in Cheshire, Ohio, USA operated by American Electric Power. Named after James M. Gavin, it is the largest coal fired power facility in Ohio, and one of the largest in the nation. Its two units, rated at 1300 MWe each,...
    
    , named in his honor
• Jamila Gavin
  Jamila Gavin
  Jamila Gavin is a British writer born in Mussoorie, India in the foothills of the Himalayas.Her father was Indian and her mother English...
  
    British Indian born author of The Surya Trilogy
• John Gavin
  John Gavin
  John Gavin is an American film actor and a former United States Ambassador to Mexico. Gavin is half Mexican and fluent in Spanish....
  
  (born in 1928), American actor and politician