Irvine

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

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)

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

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

Irvine is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Canada

  Also written Irvïne

63 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.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Irvine is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, From the Ayrshire river name, Brittonic yr (g)wyn, ‘the white one’; town noted as Wyrwine around 1140.

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• Mainly North American: transferred use of the Scottish surname, in origin a local name from a place in the former county of Ayrshire. The place name is probably derived from a Celtic river name, akin to Welsh ir, yr ‘green’, ‘fresh’ + afon ‘water’. _—o 119

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• habitational name from Irvine in Ayrshire, which is named from a Celtic river, Welsh ir, yr ‘green’, ‘fresh’ -iafon ‘water’. There has been much confusion with Irving and Irwin.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, city, KY; city, Scotland

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Andrew Comyn Irvineb. 1902GBEnglish mountaineer (1902–1924)
• Ace Baileyb. 1903CAnot in their usual nameCanadian ice hockey player
• Irvine Robbinsb. 1917CAAmerican businessman (1917–2008)
• Irvine Welshb. 1958GBScottish writer
• Alan Irvineb. 1958GBScottish association football player and manager (born 1958)
• Eddie Irvineb. 1965GBBritish racecar driver
• Paula Irvineb. 1968USAmerican actress
• Alex Irvineb. 1969USAmerican science fiction writer
• Jeremy Irvineb. 1990GBBritish actor
• Jackson Irvineb. 1993AUAustralian association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Irvine mean, and where does it come from?

‘Person from Irvine or Irving’, or from Irish Gaelic 6 hEireamhdin, ‘descendant of Eireamhon’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

In which country does Irvine have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 17 thousand people named Irvin, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Irvine?

In the Netherlands, the national register counted 29 people named Irvine, about 1 in 596 thousand residents.