Ava
Feminine · “Contested”
Ava is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 344,097 girls against 344 boys since 1880.
Two syllables, three letters, and nothing in it to explain twice: Ava opens on a long vowel and lands softly. The written record reaches back further than most people expect — a twelfth-century German poet named Ava is the earliest woman writing in German whose name we know — and it came to American ears again through Hollywood, where Ava Gardner carried it across the mid-century screen.
How old is the name Ava?
Ava was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ava is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 335,000 people named Ava are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ava most popular?
Ava peaked in 2016, reaching #3 nationally. Today it ranks #11, 8 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Ava appears on these lists:
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Three-letter names: tiny and complete
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- all guides
Works in British and French families too:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ava
Ava has two roads into English, and they arrive at the same three letters. One is Germanic and medieval: Ava appears as a woman's name in Frankish and German records, including the twelfth-century poet, and its root meaning was already unclear to the scribes who wrote it. The other is the Eva line — Hebrew Chavvah through Greek and Latin Eva — which reached English as Eve and Eva, with Ava as a near neighbor that many parents and registrars have treated as simply another spelling. In the United States the name has been on the books since the earliest years of national record-keeping, quiet for generations, then rising sharply at the close of the twentieth century.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested — most often read as a form of Eva, "life"
Three serious readings compete. Many treat Ava as a variant of Eva, from Hebrew Chavvah, "life." Others trace it to a medieval Germanic name Ava, recorded in Frankish and German sources, whose root is not established — sometimes linked to a Germanic element meaning something like "desired." A third reading connects it to Latin avis, "bird," though that one has the least support. Separately, Persian āvā means "voice" or "song," and the spelling coincides.
Cultural footprint
Ava Gardner (b. 1922) — Smoldering Golden Age star of The Barefoot Contessa
Ava Max (b. 1994) — Pop hitmaker behind "Sweet but Psycho"
Ava DuVernay (b. 1972) — First Black woman to direct a $100 million film (A Wrinkle in Time)
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Pronouncing Ava
AY-vuh
In English the first vowel is long: AY-vuh. In German, Dutch, Italian and Persian the same spelling is said AH-vah, which is worth knowing in a multilingual family. Over the phone it is sometimes heard as Ada, Ana or Eva, so spelling it out saves a step.
Nicknames for Ava
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 200718,053 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3reached in 2016
- Change vs 2022
- −30.4%7,732 in 2025, from 11,107
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ava in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eva in German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch — related form
- Ève in French — related form
- Ewa in Polish — related form
- Éabha in Irish — related form
- Chava in Hebrew — transliteration
- Eve in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada, National Records of Scotland, INSEE. Sources
Avas among us
people named Ava are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 208 born in 2025 was named Ava
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patricia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ava's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patricia climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patricia's path sketches the road Ava is walking now.
Ava is coming down from a big peak (#3 in 2016). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ava is headed
Ava is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ava beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ava in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters, phonetic in English, and almost never misspelled once heard — a child can write it before starting school.
- Charts in England and Wales, Canada, Scotland and France as well as the United States, so it travels without translation.
- Present in American records since the earliest years of national name-keeping, so it is not a recent coinage even though its wave is recent.
- Sits beside the well-known Eva, Eve and Ève, giving relatives a familiar reference point in several languages.
- It is genuinely widespread among children right now: a classroom-mate or two with the same name is a realistic prospect, and a last initial often gets attached.
- Because its rise is so recent and so steep, the name reads as a marker of one particular generation — much as certain mid-century names do today.
- There is almost no shortening available. If you like having a formal name and a nickname, Ava gives you one register rather than two.
- Ava, Eva and Ada are easily confused by ear, so expect occasional gentle correcting at appointments and roll calls.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ava to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Ava? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ava
Feminine · #11 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Avas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 335,000 people named Ava are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ava in 2025?
- Ava ranks #11 among US girl names in 2025, with 7,732 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Ava?
- About 1 in every 208 US girls born in 2025 was named Ava — 7,732 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ava with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 8 classrooms will have a child named Ava.
Ranked beside Ava
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eleanor#12 · Eliana#10 · Violet#13 · Sofia#9 · Evelyn#8 · Ailany#14 · Aurora#15 · Isabella#7
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ava? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ava and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle