Meaning: Its source is gwalch, a Welsh name meaning "White hawk."

Narrative: This name also could mean ''little falcon.'' It first appeared in writing in the French form Gauvain, though its ultimate source was probably the Welsh legends of King Arthur's knights.

One of the more famous of these knights was best known by the Welsh form Gawain, and this might be the common ancestor of the French Gavain and the modern English and Scots form Gavin.