That sounds more like something that was made up after the fact to meCheltenham average seems a bit more plausable
www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm
more than you'd ever want to know.
'A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated... But it seems the word is older... Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is new to most people.'
And charver was derived from the same word
(www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm
more than you'd ever want to know.
'A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated... But it seems the word is older... Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is new to most people.'
And charver was derived from the same word
abandonnship,
Tue 5 Jul 2005, 17:54,
archived)
