A male name. the character who appears as Gauvain in French, and Gawayne in English medieval versions of the Arthurian cycle, is in Welsh sources named Gwalchmai, a compound of gwalch ‘hawk’ and Mei the month of May. Geoffrey of Monmouth calls him Walganus, and it has been suggested that Gwalchmai had an alternative name Gwalchgwyn ‘white hawk’, which became Walganus and thence Gauvain. This not very convincing etymology, based on an unsupported assumption, is, however, the best yet put forward. No one seems to have noticed the existence of an Old German name Gawin, a derivative of Gavja ‘a district of land’, which is found from the 7th C. E. Förstemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch gives several examples of it, the earliest a Bishop Gavinus 633, another Bishop Gavienus (of Tours), and persons called Gavin and Goin. The English Gawayne, Gawn, Gawin or Gawen, and the French Gauvain, Gavin were fairly common in the Middle Ages and were still used at the end of the 17th C. Gavin has survived in Scotland where it is still quite common.

Gawyne Hundred Rolls 1273. Gawyn Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Gawin Allegations for Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London 1520-1828 1530. Gawen Lancashire Wills (1531-1760) 1669, 1680, 1687. Gavin Yorks Rec 1604. Gawne Ulverston Ch 1653.

GAWAINE; now generally GAWEN. This is the English equivalent of the Scottish Gavin, q. v., and was popular in the Middle Ages. A Sir Gawain appears thrice in notable English literature: in the medieval verse-romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in The Mabinogion, and in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. As a Knight of King Arthur’s Round Table he is, by many, considered inferior only to the King himself and to Sir Lancelot. Than the former he had more character, knightlier virtue than the latter. Ultimately, it would seem, Gawain is Gwalchmai, who, in Welsh pedigrees, is King Arthur’s nephew: golden-tongued, learned, courteous, as indeed is that young man of letters (literary London does not yet know his worth) whom, as Gawen, it adorns: who it adorns.

A Teutonic name, meaning: Hawk of battle.