Head to head · Girls' names
Eva vs Savannah
#134 vs #135 in 2025 · both stepping back from its peak
Eva is a whisker ahead (#134 vs #135 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Eva and Savannah each lead 2 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Eva #35, Savannah #378 — Eva higher
- 1890s: Eva #34, Savannah #455 — Eva higher
- 1900s: Eva #39, Savannah #519 — Eva higher
- 1910s: Eva #52, Savannah #734 — Eva higher
- 1920s: Eva #71, Savannah #911 — Eva higher
- 1930s: Eva #108, Savannah #1088 — Eva higher
- 1940s: Eva #151, Savannah #1342 — Eva higher
- 1950s: Eva #189, Savannah #1876 — Eva higher
- 1960s: Eva #233, Savannah #3210 — Eva higher
- 1970s: Eva #289, Savannah #3176 — Eva higher
- 1980s: Eva #312, Savannah #735 — Eva higher
- 1990s: Eva #342, Savannah #95 — Savannah higher
- 2000s: Eva #180, Savannah #37 — Savannah higher
- 2010s: Eva #82, Savannah #42 — Savannah higher
- 2020s: Eva #110, Savannah #91 — Savannah higher
Eva stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Savannah has held the lead since the 1990s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Eva | Savannah |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #35 | #378 |
| 1890s | #34 | #455 |
| 1900s | #39 | #519 |
| 1910s | #52 | #734 |
| 1920s | #71 | #911 |
| 1930s | #108 | #1088 |
| 1940s | #151 | #1342 |
| 1950s | #189 | #1876 |
| 1960s | #233 | #3210 |
| 1970s | #289 | #3176 |
| 1980s | #312 | #735 |
| 1990s | #342 | #95 |
| 2000s | #180 | #37 |
| 2010s | #82 | #42 |
| 2020s | #110 | #91 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Eva
- France#26
- Canada#32
- England & Wales#54
- Scotland#71
Savannah
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Eva
life, or living
The Hebrew name is built on a word for living, and the Bible explains it as meaning the mother of all who live — which is a gloss on the story rather than a strict etymology. Eva is the Latin form and the one most European languages use; the English Eve is the outlier. It has been in continuous use for two thousand years and is currently rising again after a long dip.
a Hebrew word about living → Eva as the Latin form used across Europe → an American novel makes a child called Eva famous → an American peak at the end of the nineteenth century → rising again in this century after three quiet generations
How it traveled
The book sold in numbers nobody had seen before and was adapted for the stage almost immediately, in versions the author had no control over and made no money from. The stage versions ran continuously for decades and made the death of the child the emotional center of the whole thing; there were troupes that performed nothing else.
Savannah
open grassland — or the name English colonists used for the Shawnee people
Two routes compete. One runs through the word: Taíno zabana, recorded by Spanish writers in the Caribbean in the early sixteenth century, became Spanish sabana and then English savanna, a treeless plain. The other traces the Savannah River's name to the Shawnee, whom English colonists in the Southeast wrote down as 'Savannah'. Both are serious; what is unsettled is which one gave the river its name.
zabana (Taíno) → sabana (Spanish) → savanna (English) → Savannah (Georgia city) → Savannah
How it traveled
The word came before the name. Spanish chroniclers in the Caribbean took zabana from the Taíno for flat, treeless grassland, and it traveled into Spanish as sabana and into English as savanna.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Eva
EE-vuh
Two syllables, stress at the front, in English. Most of continental Europe says AY-vuh, and both are heard in America depending on the family's background.
- Evie — The warm short form and currently far more fashionable than it has been for a century.
- Eve — The English form used as a short one, and a complete name of its own.
Savannah
suh-VAN-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The final h is silent — it is purely a spelling matter, and the h-less Savanna is read exactly the same way.
- Sav — The everyday clip, used by friends and family; rarely written on anything formal.
- Savvy — Common in childhood and among close family; some keep it into adulthood.
- Vanna — Taken from the middle of the name; also exists on its own as a given name.
- Anna — Sits inside the spelling and is occasionally used as a quieter alternative.
Who has carried each name
Eva
Eva Perón (b. 1919) — Evita — Argentina's legendary First Lady
Eva Longoria (b. 1975) — Desperate Housewives star and producer
Eva Green (b. 1980) — Casino Royale's unforgettable Bond heroine
Savannah
No documented entry for Savannah yet.
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Eva if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesEva is 2 syllables to Savannah's 3
- a name that charts abroad tooEva is on the national lists of France, Canada, England & Wales and Scotland
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 79% for Savannah
Choose Savannah if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsSavannah is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itSavannah runs 3 syllables, Eva 2
- plenty of nickname options4 recorded short forms — Sav, Savvy and Vanna
- a name that feels very nowSavannah is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Eva
Strengths
- Three letters, entirely readable, and used without alteration across most of Europe.
- The meaning is short, clear and about as positive as a meaning can be.
- It is old enough to be beyond fashion and current enough not to sound like a costume.
To consider
- The first vowel is said two ways and she will hear both.
- It is rising quickly, so it will be commoner among her contemporaries than in the record.
- Eve, Ava and Eva are close enough that all three will be substituted.
Savannah
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds for English speakers, and already familiar as both a city and a dictionary word — it rarely has to be explained.
- Two well-worn short forms, Sav and Savvy, both in real use without anyone having to invent them.
- The middle-syllable stress and soft ending sit easily against short, single-syllable surnames.
To consider
- It carries the American South with it — Georgia specifically. That is charming to many people and simply geographic to others, but it is part of the name wherever it goes.
- Savanna and Savannah are both in circulation, so expect to spell it out or correct the missing h now and then.
- It rose quickly and has begun easing back, which means it reads to some ears as belonging to a particular generation of young women rather than to grandmothers or to newborns.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Eva
12%chance Eva feels dated by 2040
Eva has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
Savannah
79%chance Savannah feels dated by 2040
Savannah is coming down from a big peak (#30 in 2006). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Eva and Savannah in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Eva and Savannah — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Eva or Savannah — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Eva or Savannah?
- Eva, in 2025: Eva ranked #134 with 2,154 babies; Savannah ranked #135 with 2,141 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Eva or Savannah?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Eva moved down 41 places; Savannah moved down 68 places.
- Which is the older name, Eva or Savannah?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Eva and Savannah?
- About 139,000 people named Eva are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 187,000 people named Savannah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Evas or Savannahs in the classroom?
- Eva will almost certainly be the only one in school. Savannah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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