Email from Julie (Javins) Norman.
My maiden name was Javins (from Boone County, WV) and I subscribed to Ancestry.com to research the name also. The trail seems to end with Joseph Javins (1735-1760). He was the father of Daniel Javins (1760-1818), who was the father of Daniel Watts Javins (1812-1894), who was the father of Francis Marion Javins (1839-1916), who as the father of Daniel Winfred Javins (1881-1941), who was the father of Carl Javins (1906-1961). who was the father of MY father Larry Javins (1939-). I couldn't find anything more through Ancestry.com however I did buy the DNA kit which said that I'm 41% Western European, 28% Irish, 17% Great Britain, 9% Scandinavian, and 5% other. Of course, this includes my mother's DNA as well, but it gives me a little more information.
Most people say the name is German, but I've also heard it might be Welsh. Honestly, I've always wondered if the name might be a derivative of the Polish name Javinsky or Javinski. Many immigrants from Italy and other European countries dropped the ending letters of their name when they came to the US to disguise their ethnicity.
If the name is German, I wonder if the name was spelled or pronounced differently in German. The German consonant 'j' is almost always pronounced in the same manner as the English 'y' sound like in words such as 'yes', 'yellow' or 'yard'. So in German, would it be pronounced Yahvins? Yet when I type Javins into Google Translate it's pronounced Javinch (a "J" sound at the beginning with a "ch" sound at the end instead of the "s" sound). Have you discovered anything about the pronunciation of the name?
Not sure how reputable the website is, but according to HouseofNames.com the Javins surname comes from the Welsh personal name Evan. The original form of the name was Jevon, which then became Yevan and Ieuan before taking on its present form. Evan is a cognate of the personal name John. Supposedly, people could not specify how to spell their own names leaving the specific recording up to the individual scribe or priest. Those recorders would then spell the names as they heard them, causing many different variations. Later, many Welsh names were recorded in English. This transliteration process was extremely imprecise since the Brythonic Celtic language of the Welsh used many sounds the English language was not accustomed to. Finally, some variations occurred by the individual's design: a branch loyalty within a family, a religious adherence, or even patriotic affiliations were indicated by spelling variations of one's name. The Javins name over the years has been spelled Jeavon, Jeavons, Jevin, Jevan, Jevon, Jevons, Javin, Gevin, Gevinn, Ievan and many more.
Anyway, I seem to be getting stuck in the mid-1700s in Virginia/West Virginia, and I'm hoping you might have some ideas, information or resources you could provide. We've traced the line back as far as Joseph Javins, born circa 1735 and died approximately 1760 all in the Fairfax County area. I'm hitting a dead end as to who his parents were, where they came from, etc. About all we've found is a couple of mentions in George Washington's accounts for Mount Vernon.
I'm hoping you can maybe help fill in the blanks, or at least throw a clue that might spark some new lines of inquiry.
Dr. Julie M. Norman, CEcD, CWDP
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