Purves (surname)

Purves is a surname of British origin, which is a variant of Purvis.^[1] It is an occupational surname, meaning the person responsible for obtaining supplies for a household or monastery, derived from the Middle English purveys (meaning "provisions" or "supplies"), from the Old French porveoir ("to provide, supply").^[2] Notable people with this surname include:

• Andrew Purves (born 1946), British theologian
• Austin M. Purves Jr. (1900–1977), American artist
• Barry Purves (born 1960), British animator and filmmaker
• Cec Purves (born 1933), Canadian politician
• Christopher Purves (born 1961), British singer
• Dale Purves (born 1938), American neurobiologist
• Daphne Purves (1908–2008), New Zealand educator
• Della Purves (1945–2008), British botanical artist
• Herbert Dudley Purves (1908–1993), New Zealand scientist
• James Purves (disambiguation), several notable people
• Jodie Purves (born 1984), Australian cricketer
• John Purves (disambiguation), several people
• John-Clay Purves (1825–1903), British curator and geologist
• Laidlaw Purves (1842–1917), Scottish surgeon and golf advocate
• Libby Purves (born 1950), British journalist
• Margaret Purves (1934–2021), British recipient of the Albert Medal, later exchanged for the George Cross
• Peter Purves (born 1939), British television presenter and actor
• Ted Purves (born 1964), American artist
• William Purves (banker) (born 1931), British banker

• Purves (disambiguation)

Surname list

This page lists people with the surname Purves.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.