During the period when settlers spent a lot of time cutting wood, if a son looked or acted like his father he was called a “chip off the old block”.
It meant that except for size, the two were as clearly related as a chip cut from its original block of wood from the family tree.
A little shaver is the same, except that a shaving is smaller than a chip.
A “sprig” on the other hand, is a child too small yet to even have a branch on the family tree.
The term is originally from the word Chavo – which is the Romany (Gypsy) word for child. As the Gypsy population migrated through-out europe, the word was adopted in english as Chavies, and in Scotland the CH became SH. The term Shavies came to America as Shaver or Shavers. Since it is a term of endearment, Little Shaver or Shavers.
Other words have moved through europe with the Romany language.