Gawain

Meaning uncertain, the name comes from the Latin form Gualguainus used in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century chronicles, where the knight serves his uncle King Arthur and appears in variant spellings such as Walganus and Gwalguanus. He is identifiable with the earlier Welsh hero Gwalchmai, and the name may derive from that form or from a misreading of it. Gawain became a popular medieval hero in tales by Chrétien de Troyes, where he appears as Gauvain or Gauvains, and he is the central figure of the 14th-century anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which he accepts a potentially fatal challenge from the mysterious Green Knight.

In 2025, 5 babies were recorded with the name Gawain, ranking #12,008 among boys.