Revis
A likely English surname from the place-name Rievaulx, with early forms also linked to medieval spellings like Rivis and Jarvis.
The #9,570 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 90,914 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most likely tied to the Yorkshire abbey and place-name Rievaulx, which appears in medieval forms such as Rievalle and Rivis. The place-name itself goes back to Old French and Latin elements meaning roughly “river valley.” Older surname scholarship also noticed Revis alongside related forms like Rivis and Jarvis, suggesting a family of names that developed from the same local source or from similar medieval spellings.
History
The name seems to have been recorded especially in Yorkshire, which fits a northern English origin. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century surname writers treated Revis as a variant or offshoot of the Rievaulx/Rivis group rather than a separate independent name. Its modern survival is modest but established in the English-speaking world, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname scholarship grouped Revis with Jarvis and Rivis as part of a small cluster of names linked to the same medieval northern place-name tradition.
From the historical record
“DIALECT TOPOGRAPHY 83 Revis, Rivis, and Jervaulx, one origin of Jarvis. With these cf. Clarvis, from Clairvaux [Albin de Clairvaux, Ramsey Cart.}. Vyse, Vize. Of Devizes, once commonly called " the Vyse " and latinized as Divisce [Richard del Vise,”
— Surnames