Galvàn

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Galvàn is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Argentina than in any other country. Recorded meaning: From Spanish Galván, ultimately from Latin Galbanus, from Galba + -anus (“-an”), from galba (“larva, worm, fatty”), from Gaulish of uncertain meaning. Doublet of Galvao, Galvano, and Galvani.

rarermore common
  • ARArgentina1 in 769(measured from records)
  • UYUruguay1 in 808
  • DODominican Republic≈1 in 3.1K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Argentina (measured from records)

59,160 people

#812 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

Sources
397 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 769 (inferred from the name graph)

Argentina

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Galvan in US United States, AR Argentina, PH Philippines and 5 more.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Derivation of Galvàn: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Galvàn
  1. SpanishGalván(measured from records)
  2. LatinGalbanus(measured from records)
  3. Galba+(measured from records)
  4. Galba rootgalba“larva“larva, worm, fatty”(measured from records)
  5. Gaulishof(measured from records)

From Spanish Galván, ultimately from Latin Galbanus, from Galba + -anus (“-an”), from galba (“larva, worm, fatty”), from Gaulish of uncertain meaning. Doublet of Galvao, Galvano, and Galvani.

Sources 5

  • A dictionary of surnames
  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
  • Wiktionary
  • Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Galvàn counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Galvàn is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
AR Argentina#11859,1601 in 76959KGalvan104
US United States#76553,8221 in 6.2K54KGalvan397
PH Philippines#448≈15,000 est.≈1 in 7.3K—Galvan69
ES Spain#33412,1721 in 4.1K12KGalvan147
CO Colombia#504≈10,000 est.≈1 in 4.7K6Galvan79
UY Uruguay#1614,1921 in 8084.2KGalvan42
DO Dominican Republic#239≈3,400 est.≈1 in 3.1K—Galvan34
PY Paraguay#310≈1,600 est.≈1 in 4.5K—Galvan24

59,160 people counted by RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); the co-datosgov-candidates register; INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Galvàn is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Lao surname14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Philippines

    Languages: Lao, Thai

    Also written Galvan, Galvañ, Gälvän, Ğáĺváń, Gąlvąń

  • Hebrew surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Israel, Spain, Philippines

    Also written Galvan, Gälvân, Galván

4 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Evidence(measured from records)

No register attests this spelling yet

None of the official registers or reference works in our corpus lists Galvàn under this spelling. The statistics on this page rest on person records, and the related names are inferred from the name graph.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Galvàn mean, and where does it come from?
From Spanish Galván, ultimately from Latin Galbanus, from Galba + -anus (“-an”), from galba (“larva, worm, fatty”), from Gaulish of uncertain meaning. Doublet of Galvao, Galvano, and Galvani. Recorded by A dictionary of surnames and Dictionary of American Family Names and 3 other sources.
In which country does Galvàn have the most bearers?
In Argentina, the national register counted about 59 thousand people named Galvàn, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled galvan.
Where is Galvàn most common?
Galvàn is densest in Argentina, where the national register counts about 1 in 769 people carrying it.
How common is the name Galvàn?
In Argentina, the national register counted 59,160 people named Galvàn, about 1 in 769 residents.
How common is Galvàn compared with other names?
In Argentina, Galvàn is the 118th most common surname of 398,256 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Galvàn?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/galv%C3%A0n

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Galvàn” — the 118th most common surname in Argentina. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Galvàn parses inside a full name →