Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Portuguese : habitational name from a place in the province of Tras-os-Montes named Chaves, from Latin (aquis) Flaviis, ‘(at the) waters of Flavius’. The place was the site of sulfurous springs with supposedly health-giving properties, around which a settlement was founded in the 1st century ad by the Emperor Vespasian.
  • Portuguese and Galician : habitational name from any of numerous places called Chaves, generally from the plural of chave ‘key’, from Latin clavis.
  • Variant of Irish and English Chivers. Compare Chavers.