(English) belonging to Cavendish (Suff.) If this place-name be not older than the Middle-English period, the meaning may conceivably be the 'Caves-Hollow.' [from caven, a pl. or adj. form of Middle English cave (Old French cave) + dish, Middle English disch (Old English disc, a dish, bowl), which seems also to have been used topographically to denote a bowl-shaped hollow; but poss. the second element is the Old English edisc, an enclosure, park]

This aristocratic English name has been used as a rather pretentious synonym of both O’Kevane and Kavanagh. IF 190; MIF 153

Roger de Gernon, a cadet of the great Norman family, temp. Edw. II., acquiring with the heiress of John Potton, the lands of Cavendish, co. Suffolk, adopted De Cavendish for his surname. Peerage.

Gernon, or de Montfichet. The descent of the Cavendish family from Gernon has been disputed, but (as I intend to show) without reason. The Gernons were a branch of the Barons of Montfichet, Montfiquet, or Montfiket in Normandy, so named after their Scandinavian ancestor. The castle of Montfichet long remained, as well as the Church of St. Catherine in the castle, a foundation of this family. About 1050 Robert, surnamed Guernon (moustache), Baron of Montfichet, witnessed a charter of Duke William (Gall. Christ. xi. Instr. 229). He had issue, 1, William de Montfichet, who d. s. p., when the barony devolved on Wil­liam, the son of his brother; 2, Robert Guernon or Gernon, who held a great barony in Essex, &c., 1086. From his elder son William de Montfichet descended the Barons of that name, whose seats were at Stanstead Montfichet, Essex, and Montfichet Tower, London, of which city the Montfichets were hereditary standard-bearers or military chiefs in time of war. The younger branches retained the name of Gernon. Alured Gernon, brother of William de Montfichet, had estates in Essex and Middlesex 1130 (Rot. Pip.). Matthew, his son, 1135 witnessed a charter of William Montfichet (Mon. i. 803). Ralph, his son, 1165, held a fief from Montfichet in Essex, and was granted Bakewell, Derbyshire, by Richard I. (Testa de Neville). He had Ralph G., founder of Lees Priory, Essex, father of William G., who had two sons : l, Ralph, ancestor of a line of Gernon frequently mentioned in Essex, Suffolk, and Derby, and which long continued; 2, Geoffry. Geoffry, surnamed de Cavendish from his residence at Cavendish, Suffolk, appears in 1302 as bailsman with Walter de C., his son, for certain citizens of London who had been charged with the unlawful possession of some crown jewels (Palgr. Anc. Calendars, i. 295). Roger de C., another son of Geoffry, m. a dau. of Potton of Cavendish, by whom he acquired an estate there, and was father of Sir John Cavendish, chief justice t. Rich. II., and Roger Cavendish. The former, in 1359, purchased the Manor of Cavendish Overhall from De Odingselles, from which it has been too readily inferred that the statement that Cavendish had been acquired in the preceding generation by the heiress of Potton was unfounded (Archæologia, xi. 53). But the objector was not aware that at Cavendish there were five or six manors, as the records clearly show, belonging to the families of De Grey, Hastings, De Clare, to the Abbot of Dereham, and De Odingselles, so that the Cavendishes may well have possessed property there before they purchased Cavendish Overhall. The identity of the family of Cavendish with that of Gernon in the eastern counties appears in all the old heralds’ visitations, where the two names hear indiscriminately the same arms; and the account of the descent of this family by Collins, which has been disputed on the above grounds, appears to he perfectly authentic. The Dukes of Newcastle, Devonshire, and other great families of the name of Cavendish, descended from the Gernons and Montfichets.

A location name (a manor), Suffolk It was assumed by the Norman Knight, Gernon de Montfichet; in the Domesday Book, Gernon.