Tracing the Chave Family Name

Spellings drift, and Chave is where Chaves drifted for some families. Its meaning, shared with Chaves, is “From Chaves”. Without the “s” of Chaves, Chave is a simpler written form of the same name. Local scribes, dialects and emigration all left their mark on how the name was written.

In the 2010 US Census, 245 Americans gave Chave as their last name (rank 78,040). That is enough to place it in the top 100,000 American surnames. French birth records list 1,934 children named Chave between 1891 and 2000.

Heraldry is personal: arms associated with the Chaves surname were borne by specific families, and sharing the name does not mean sharing the blazon. Get the complete Chave report, with a museum-style coat of arms.