Gavin: The Story Behind My First Name

The story behind my first name, Gavin, is a relatively simple. The name Gavin has been a popular name for some time now. In the year 2000, it became one of the top one hundred most popular names for babies. It kept climbing in popularity after that, becoming the sixty-first most common name when I was born (2002), eventually becoming the thirtieth most popular first name. My parents picked the name out for me in that manner; they saw and liked the name in a baby names book. However, the name also has a large amount of historical significance. In the medieval times, the word “gwalchgwyn” meant “white hawk” (Our Baby Names). The name was then immortalized by Sir. Garwin (Garwin being a form of Gwalchgwyn), one of the knights at King Arthur’s round table. While my first name Gavin has some intriguing historical ties, it was chosen for me regardless of those. …show more content…
My earliest known ancestor, born in the 13th century, was Farinata degli Uberti. A military commander, Farinata was the leader of the Ghibelline faction in Florence. However, when the Holy Roman Emperor died, the other major faction in Florence (the Guelph faction) was able to take control of the city. Farinata fled to Sicily along with his supporters, before leading a successful military campaign to take back control of Florence. He then happily lived out the rest of his life, but when the city of Florence was taken over again by the Guelph, his corpse encountered some trouble. It was dug out of the ground, and mutilated by the Guelph (Wikimedia