- French theologian and reformer in Switzerland: leader in the Protestant Reformation.
- U.S. chemist: Nobel Prize 1961.
- a male given name: from a Latin word meaning “bald.”
- John, original name Jean Cauvin, Caulvin, or Chauvin. 1509–64, French theologian: a leader of the Protestant Reformation in France and Switzerland, establishing the first presbyterian government in Geneva. His theological system is described in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)
- Melvin. 1911–97, US chemist, noted particularly for his research on photosynthesis: Nobel prize for chemistry 1961
