Chevy

Chevy is familiar as a short form of the automobile brand Chevrolet and through the name Chevy Chase. The actor was born Cornelius and received Chevy as a nickname, so his example is not evidence that Chevy literally means Cornelius. Chevy Chase also belongs to an older ballad title and to place names, giving the phrase a history beyond modern entertainment.

These routes should be distinguished from the often-repeated suggestion that Chevy is simply a French word meaning “knight.” Chevalier is the French word behind that claim, but similarity does not establish every modern Chevy’s derivation. A family may intend a motoring, personal, or place association, and that specific connection explains the name more reliably than one universal translation.