Garvin Coat of Arms, Family Crest and Garvin Family History

Garvin Family History

The ancient origin of the name Garvin was found in the irishsurnames.com archives. The name Garvin is derived from the Gaelic sept of O'Gairbhin that was located in County Mayo and from the O'Garbhain sept that was located in County Kerry.

A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. It is also the case that many Irish septs or clans that are related often belong to a larger groups, sometimes called tribes. For example the 'Tribes of Galway' consisted of fourteen distinct families. The 'Tribes of Kilkenny' were ten families, etc.

These names have also been anglicized as Garvan, Garvey, McGarvey and Garven. When Gaelic names were anglicized during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were often changed to Anglo equivalents that sounded most like their original Gaelic name. The second sept mentioned above usually changed their name to Garvan rather than Garvin and were akin to the Moriartys of Kerry. In modern times the name Garvin is most associated with County Mayo and Munster Province. The Garvin family crest (or coat of arms) came into existence many centuries ago. The process of creating these coats of arms began as early as the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this, including Ireland. The new more formalized art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own family crest, coat of arms, including Garvin descendants.