Eva
Masculine · “life”
Eva is given to girls far more often — 284,761 girls against 1,007 boys since 1880. See Eva as a girl name
Little Eva was the most famous child in nineteenth-century America. She dies about two-thirds of the way through the novel that did more than any speech to turn northern opinion against slavery, and her death scene was performed on stage, printed on handkerchiefs and recited in parlours for fifty years.
How old is the name Eva?
Eva first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Eva alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 300 people named Eva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eva most popular?
Eva peaked in 1890, reaching #603 nationally. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Hebrew word about living to Eva
The story of Eva
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. The name went up in the American record in exactly those years. It is one of the clearest cases in the whole record of a single book, and one character in it, moving a name across a country.
Meaning
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.
How the name formed
- 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
Related forms: Eve · Eva · Chava · Eva
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Eva
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
- 1887
- Most boys named
- 193325 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #603reached in 1890
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%5 in 2023, from 5
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.
Eva in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Eve in English — same name
- Eva in Spanish — same name
- Chava in Hebrew — same name
- Eva in Italian — same name
Evas among us
people named Eva are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Eva sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- 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.
- 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.
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Eva
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Evas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Eva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eva in 2025?
- Eva is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Eva with classmates?
- Eva will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Edward#224 · Eric#273 · Ethan#24 · Eugene#943 · Elijah#7 · Ernest#1038 · Earl#2230 · Evan#153
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eva? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Eva and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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