An English and French surname, the family name of Travis comes from the Old and Middle English terms of ‘travis’, ’travers’ ’travas’ and ’traves’ which all mean a crossing such as one crossing a bridge. The term came to mean a person who collected the tolls for crossing a bridge. The spelling variations for Travis includes Traviss, Travers and Traverse. In England most with the Travis surname live in Lancashire and Yorkshire. There are scatterings of the Travis name in the southeastern and southwestern portions of England and a few in Wales. In Scotland the main concentration of Travis families is in Stirlingshire, Fife, Angus, Dumfries- shire and Ayrshire. Within the United States the early Travis families settled in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Delaware, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. Famous: Randy Travis (singer), Cecil Travis (professional baseball player), Kylie Travis (actress from Australia), William B. Travis (19th century commander for the Texans at the Battle of the Alamo), Michael Travis (musician), Debbie Travis (television hostess and personality in Canada), Abby Travis (musician) and Bill Travis (photographer of city scenes).