How did Alvin get its name?
Alvin is owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The sub was christened in 1964. The Deep Submergence Group at Woods Hole named Alvin. It was both a contraction of their colleague Allyn Vine’s name (he worked tirelessly to make the submersible a reality) and a reference to the popular cartoon chipmunk!
Copyright University of Delaware.