Purvis
A surname meaning someone who lived by the parvis, or church porch/outer court.
The #2,177 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 18,503 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Purvis is generally explained as a surname from Middle English parvis, meaning a church porch, outer court, or similar enclosed space. That word came through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Medieval Latin paravisus, ultimately from Latin paradisus, 'paradise,' used in a more physical sense for an enclosed or sheltered place. In surname use, it most likely began as a topographic name for someone who lived or worked by a parvis.
History
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname writers usually treated Purvis as a British topographic surname rather than a patronymic. Some noted Scottish and northern English examples, and later writers also linked it with forms such as Purves and older spellings like Pervyse or Purvoys. The surname spread beyond Britain and appears in records in the United States and elsewhere through migration.
Origin
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Fun fact
The same root behind Purvis is related to the word 'paradise'—though in this surname it refers to a porch or outer court, not a heavenly garden.
From the historical record
“enclosure, etc.] PURVIS "1 (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Dweller at a Parvis PURVES J or PoRCH(gen. of a church) [A.-Fr. parvys, O.Fr. parvis, L.Lat. paravis-us ; Lat. paradis-us] The parvis, or portico, of old St. Paul's was much frequented by lawyers. A Sergeant of the Lawe, war and wys, That often hadde ben at the Parvys. —…”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)