Chávez

Where the name comes from

• Spanish
  From a place called Chaves
  Portuguese Chaves < Latin (aquis) Flaviis, "(at the) waters of Flavius"; or chave "key" < Latin clavis
  Toponymic. DAFN: Chávez is a "variant of Chaves." For Chaves DAFN gives two senses: a habitational name from Chaves in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, from Latin (aquis) Flaviis, a settlement founded around sulfurous springs in the 1st century AD under Emperor Vespasian; and a Portuguese and Galician habitational name from any of numerous places called Chaves, "generally from the plural of chave ‘key’ from Latin clavis." The -ez ending here is not a patronymic; it is a Castilianized spelling of -es.

Chávez across traditions

• Heraldic tradition. Fray Angélico Chávez records the tradition, from the poet Zapata de Chaves, that the name was given to two Ruiz brothers knighted for winning the Portuguese town from the Moors in 1160, with arms of five keys.
• New Mexico. The New Mexico family descends from Pedro Durán y Chaves, who arrived about 1600, and his son Fernando Durán y Chaves. DAFN: the surname "is also found among Native Americans (Pueblos) in NM." In 1880 about 77% of US Chavez families (1,418) lived in New Mexico. It is among the three most common New Mexico surnames.

Who carried it

• Dennis Chávez (1888–1962): US Representative (1931–1935) and US Senator (1935–1962) from New Mexico; died in office. Presidential Proclamation 5790 (1988) calls him "the first native-born Hispanic elected to the United States Senate."
• Fray Angélico Chávez (1910–1996): Born in Wagon Mound, New Mexico; the first native New Mexican Franciscan priest; historian and author of "Origins of New Mexico Families."
• José Francisco Chaves (1833–1904): Delegate to the US Congress from the Territory of New Mexico beginning in 1865; Chaves County is named for him.

Forms in other languages

Chaves, Chavez, De Chávez, Chévez, Durán y Chaves

Chávez in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.