The origins of the name Chevin are uncertain; the earliest attestation is in an eleventh-century copy of a charter from 972 which gives the spelling scefinc, while a charter of around 1030 gives the form on Scefinge. The most probable origin, according to a range of authorities, is a Brittonic word whose modern Welsh descendant is cefn (back, ridge, ridge of high land). This word appears in other hill-names, such as Cefn Cribwr and Cefn Bryn in Glamorgan amongst many others in Wales, and also, it has been argued, The Cheviot in Northumberland, and the Cévennes in France.: