Cavin
A surname with several possible roots, most likely from a personal name or a French place-name element rather than a single clear meaning.
The #9,790 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,361 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Cavin is not securely pinned to one origin. In English and Scottish contexts it may be a variant of names such as Calvin or a surname shaped by local pronunciation and spelling change, while French material suggests a connection with cave- or ravine-related place words. Because the historical record does not give a single agreed derivation, the safest reading is that Cavin is a surname of mixed or uncertain origin.
History
The name appears in records in Britain and in Anglophone countries, and modern bearers may descend from more than one unrelated family line. In some cases it may have been influenced by French-language surnames after migration or by spelling simplification in English records. Its modest modern frequency in the United States fits a surname that has developed along several regional pathways.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Cavin can reflect different spelling traditions, two families with the same surname may not share the same original ancestor or meaning.
From the historical record
“tion. 1745. Married — Cavin Crookshanks and Isabella Cassie : St. Geo. Chap. Mayfair, p. 57. 1 748. — John Bonney and Mary Cruck- shanks: ibid. p. 135.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (alternate scan)