Genesis 10:26 names him as a son of Yaktan and a descendant of Shem.
Gesenius suggests that the name means: "the court of death" from Chatsar (חצר) = "an enclosure" and Mavet (מות) = "Death"; and not simply Death, but Mot, the Kena'ani (Canaanite) god of Death and the Underworld himself. Gesenius associates it with a town of that name in Arabia Felix on the Indian ocean noted for its unhealthy climate, its myrrh, its frankincense and its aloes. Given that all the Yaktanite tribes are associated with this same region, it seems highly likely to have been the case, and if so, these "sons" may in fact have meant clans originally, which then developed into villages and towns.
CHATSAR, as Gesenius rightly observes, means "to surround with a wall" and was used for "an enclosure", "a court", even "a pasture", but particularly for walled hamlets and small villages (eg Chatsar Adar in Numbers 34:4; Chatsar Gadah in Joshua 15:27 and Chatsar Shu'al in Joshua 15:28; Chatsar Enan in Ezekiel 48:1 and others). More famously, in 1 Kings 9:15, Shelomoh (Solomon) rebuilt, or at least fortified, a town named simply Chatsor (חצור), making it one of the four royal cities of his kingdom; and in fact Chatsor appears frequently as the name of a fortified town, which suggests it probably wasn't a town at all originally, but, like its remarkably similar Roman equivalent "castra", a garrison or fort or military base which then developed into a town later on.
The same word is also used to describe the inner court of the Temple, known as "the inner court" or "the court of the priest", he-Chatser ha-Penimit (החצר הפנימית) - Chatser ha-Mishkan (חֲצַר הַמִּשְׁכָּן) in Exodus 27:9 - and the Great Court, Chatser ha-gedolah (חצר הגדולה) in 1 Kings 7:12, which may infer that Chatsar Mavet was connected in some manner to the temple of the High Priest of the underworld god.
What the above seems to confirm, mostly, is that it was not the name of a person, nor a tribe, but of a physical location, whether town, building, or part of a building.
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