Culver Family History

English (Kent): from Middle English culver colver ‘dove’ (Old English culfre Late Latin columbula a diminutive of columba) which Reaney suggests was used as a term of endearment.

It may therefore have been applied as a nickname for a lovelorn youth or perhaps for someone who used the expression indiscriminately.

Otherwise, it may have been a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of doves or a nickname for someone bearing some fancied resemblance to a dove, such as mildness of temper.