The Scottish surname Irvine is toponymic in origin, being derived from the place where the original bearer once dwelt or held land. The surname in fact may have two distinct sources, the old parish of Irving in Dumfriesshire which is the more usual root of the surname, and Irvine in Ayrshire situated on the River Irvine some seven miles from Kilmarnock. The original bearer was thus on "from Irving" or "from Irvine".

The name appeared in Scotland in the twelfth Century and is first documented a few years later in 1226 when one Robert de Hirewine witnessed a land charter. Robert de Iruwyn witnessed another charter drawn up by Gamelin, Bishop of St Andrews, around 1260. In 1324 William de Irwyne, Clerk to the Register and armour-bearer to Robert 1 (Robert the Bruce, 1306-1329), obtained the Forest of Drum, Aberdeenshire, from the King and was thus the ancestor of the Irvines of Drum.

In 1331 Alexander, Bishop of Aberdeen granted William a charter of lands and in 1332 John de Irwyn was awarded the provision of a canonry and prebend at Dunkeld. Sir Alexander Irvine the Laird of Drum, fell at the battle of Harlaw in 1411 when Donald, Laird of the Isles, sought to claim the Earldom of Ross from the Regent Albany.

In the Shetlands in the mid-sixteenth Century an offshoot gave rise the Shetlands surname of Irvinson or "son of Irvine"