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Last name origins & meanings:

  1. English: occupational name for a carver of wood or a sculptor of stone, from an agent derivative of Middle English kerve(n) ‘to cut or carve’.
  2. English: occupational name for a plowman, from Anglo-Norman French caruier, from Late Latin carrucarius, a derivative of carruca ‘cart’, ‘plow’.
  3. Americanized spelling of German Garber, Gerber, or Körber (see Koerber).
  4. Irish: variant of Carvey.
  5. Possibly also a reduced form of Irish McCarver.
  6. John Carver (c. 1576–1621), one of the Mayflower Pilgrims, was the first governor of Plymouth Plantation. He was born in Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire, England. Emigrating to Holland in 1609, he joined the Pilgrims at Leyden.

This name appears in the following lists: Black History/Civil Rights Leaders, Heroes and Heroines