Mavis is a female name. Its usage was initiated by Marie Corelli's 1895 novel The Sorrows of Satan which featured a character named Mavis Clare whose first name is said to be "rather odd" but suitable for Miss Clare as "she sings quite as sweetly as any thrush". Corelli patently was utilizing the common noun mavis2 which refers to the song thrush and was long obsolete by the 19th century but known from its poetic use as in Robert Burns's Ca' the Yowes ("Hark the mavis evening sang/Sounding Clouden's woods amang") written in 1794; also the popular love song "Mary of Argyle", written circa 1850 by lyricist Charles Jefferys features the line: "I have heard the mavis singing its love-song to the morn."
Mavis had its height of popularity between the 1920s and 1940s. Its usage declined thereafter, and the name has become rather unfashionable since the 1960s.
2Old French
mauvis
Notable persons with the first name Mavis include:
Mavis Adjei, Ghanaian actress
Mavis Doering (1929–2007), Cherokee Nation basket-weaver
Mavis Fan (born 1977), Taiwanese singer
Mavis Freeman (1918–1988, American swimmer who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games
Mavis Gallant (b. 1922), Canadian writer
Mavis Gray née Beckett (b. 1944), Australian sportswoman
Mavis Hee (b. 1974), Singaporean singer
Mavis Hutchinson, first woman to run across the United States
Mavis Jukes (b. 1947), American children's author
Mavis Leno (b. 1956), American feminist and wife of Jay Leno
Mavis Nicholson (b. 1930), Welsh broadcaster
Mavis Pugh (1914–2006), English actress and comedian
Mavis Smitheman, local body councillor for Ardwick, Manchester
Mavis Staples (b. 1939), American rhythm and blues singer
Mavis Taillieu (b. 1952), Canadian politician
Mavis Tate (1893–1947), British Conservative Party politician and feminist
Mavis Taylor (1915–2007), Australian humanitarian
Mavis Villiers, an actress
Mavis Wilson (fl. 1980–90s), Canadian politician
The Mavis's, Australian alternative rock band
Notable fictional characters with the first name Mavis include:
Dark Mavis, recurring character in English rock band Mansun's debut album Attack of the Grey Lantern
Mavis, a controversial personification of viewers of daytime shopping television, made by Katie Hopkins of the third series of the UK television reality programme The Apprentice; Mavis is said to have had an ample bosom and to be single and lonely, among other things
Mavis, two fictional characters who first appeared in the DC Comics universe
Mavis, a character from the BBC comedy Open All Hours
Mavis, a diesel locomotive character from The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry and from the derived children's television series Thomas & Friends;
Mavis Anderson, secondary character in Dallas, best friend to Miss Ellie Ewing
Mavis Beacon, the eponymous African-American typing instructor of the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software
Mavis Bramston, from The Mavis Bramston Show (1964–1968), Australian television satire
Mavis Buckey, anthropomorphic animal character from the Funny Farm series
Mavis Clare, a popular author who resists the temptation of the Devil in The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli
Mavis Cruet, an obese young fairy incapable of flight, from the British children's animated series Willo the Wisp (1981/2005)
Mavis Davis, a pseudonymous singer in the British comedy Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997)
Mavis DeVere, one version of the actual name of Bubbles DeVere, a character in the BBC comedy series Little Britain
Mavis Dracula, a 118-year-old vampire and the daughter of Count Dracula in the 2012 animated film Hotel Transylvania
Mavis Freestone, a singer, from the ...in Death series of detective novels
Mavis Gary, an emotionally unavailable author and the main character of Young Adult (2011)
Mavis Madling, a character in the situation comedy series Designing Women
Mavis Ming, title character in Michael Moorcock's The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming, part of his Dancers at the End of Time series
Mavis Munro, office manager in the comic book series Supernatural Law and Supernatural Law Secretary Mavis
Mavis Neff, a girlfriend of Andy Griffith in The Andy Griffith Show
Mavis Newkirk, Corporal Newkirk's sister on Hogan's Heroes
Mavis Pike, character in the British situation comedy Dad's Army
Mavis Rae, main character in the situation comedy Whoopi
Mavis Vermillion, founder and first master of the same-named guild in manga-anime Fairy Tail
Mavis Wartella-Depew, an elementary school student in Rockett's New School, a video game
Mavis Wilton, a character in Coronation Street