Calvin
A surname often explained as a nickname for someone bald, from a Latin root meaning “bald.”
The #3,763 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 32,803 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is usually linked to Latin calvus, meaning “bald,” passing through French forms such as Chauvin, Caffin, or Cauvin in older surname tradition. In that explanation, Calvin is a later spelling or related form built from the same nickname root. Some writers also connect it with Manx forms derived from a word meaning “bald,” but the broad idea is the same: an old nickname for a bald or closely shaven person.
History
The name is best known today because of John Calvin, the Reformation theologian, whose family name was Latinized in scholarly use. Historical surname writers also record Calvin and related forms in Normandy and the British Isles, often treating them as variants of a broader family of baldness-based surnames. In some places the surname later became uncommon or obsolete, though it survived in learned and religious contexts through the famous reformer.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
John Calvin did not always use that exact spelling: sources note that he Latinized his name in the 1530s before the form Calvin became standard in print.
From the historical record
“315). Several Devonihirc (aniiUea bear tbe name ; cf. Fr, dtataii, bald (v. Chaffs), and Calvin, from Latin cabnu. Probably ChauGn ' OAxu protean (cr fan Ik doth not Pot why? TWtf eaooM take from”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances