(origin: Local) A house or castle on the shore of a river or the sea; Welsh, glan, a shore, bank of a river; old French or Gaelic, the same; as Glandeve, in France, on the banks of the Var. Glan or glen signifies also a narrow valley or dell.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

GLANVILLE. A place in the arrondissement of Pout-l'Eveque, in Normandy. It is latinized ' De Glanvilla,' and anglicized Glanfield. Robert de Glanville, a tenant in Suffolk, temp. Domesd. was ancestor of the earls of Suffolk of that name. The Glanvilles of Catchfrench, co. Cornwall, are descended from the G.'s of Halwell, CO. Devon, circ. 1400, (Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men) and they, according to tradition, from Eanulf de Glanville, lord of Glanville, near Pont I'Eveque, who entered England with the Conqueror. C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, ii. 171.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.