Evangeline
Feminine · Greek roots · “bringer of good news”
Longfellow gave this name to American ears in 1847, in a long poem about a young Acadian woman searching the continent for the man she was separated from — and readers loved it enough that Louisiana still has an Evangeline Parish and an Evangeline oak. Four syllables that end on a long, open note, with a whole set of ready-made short forms tucked inside it.
How old is the name Evangeline?
Evangeline first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Evangeline is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 29,500 people named Evangeline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Evangeline most popular?
Evangeline peaked in 2025, reaching #147 nationally. Today it ranks #147, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From euangelion (Greek, "good news") to Evangeline
The story of Evangeline
The parts are ancient Greek: eu- "good" joined to the word for message, the pair of them behind evangelium, the Latin word for gospel. The name Evangelia and its masculine partner Evangelos have been in steady use among Greek-speaking Christians for centuries. The English form Evangeline, however, belongs to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who chose it for the heroine of his 1847 narrative poem about the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia. The poem was read aloud in nineteenth-century parlours and classrooms across the country, and it carried the name into American use — most durably in French Louisiana, where Acadian descendants adopted it as their own.
Meaning
bringer of good news
From Greek eu- "good" and angelma "message" — the same roots behind the word evangel, or gospel.
Cultural footprint
Evangeline Lilly (b. 1979) — Lost's Kate and Marvel's Wasp
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- euangelionGreek, "good news"
- EvangeliumLatin
- Evangelia / EvangelosGreek
- Evangelina
- Evangeline
Related forms: Evangelia · Evangelina · Evangelina · Évangéline · Evanghelina · Evangelina
Pronouncing Evangeline
ee-VAN-juh-leen
Stress on the second syllable. The ending goes both ways: some families say -leen, others -lin or -line. Both are established, so it is worth deciding early which one you will correct people toward.
Nicknames for Evangeline
High
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 20251,998 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #147reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +67.9%1,998 in 2025, from 1,190
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.
Evangeline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Evangelia in Greek — related form
- Evangelina in Spanish — related form
- Evangelina in Italian — related form
- Évangéline in French — spelling variant
- Evanghelina in Romanian — related form
- Evangelina in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Evangelines among us
people named Evangeline are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 804 born in 2025 was named Evangeline
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 Marisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Evangeline's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marisa climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marisa's path sketches the road Evangeline is walking now.
Evangeline is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Evangeline is headed
Evangeline looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Evangeline beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Evangeline in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An unusually deep bench of short forms — Evie, Eva, Eve, Lina — so the same child can have a formal name and an everyday one.
- Recognizable across languages: Greek Evangelia, Spanish and Italian Evangelina, French Évangéline all trace the same roots.
- Spelled the way it sounds once heard, and anchored by the familiar word evangel; most people will get it right on the second try.
- A documented literary source and a real place-name history in Acadian Louisiana, which gives the name something to hold onto.
- The wave is very recent and still building, so a child named Evangeline now will likely meet more of them over a lifetime than the current classroom suggests.
- Four syllables invites shortening, and the shortenings lead straight into Eva, Evie and Evelyn — a crowded corner of the girls' charts right now. You may hear her called by one of those far more than by her full name.
- The eu-angel root means "good news" in the gospel sense, and some Americans hear the word evangelical in it. That reads as a plus in some families and as a signal in others; it is worth knowing which one your circle hears.
- People will ask whether the ending is -leen or -line. Not a burden, just a small lifelong clarification.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Evangeline to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Evangeline
Feminine · Greek roots · #147 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Evangelines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,500 people named Evangeline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Evangeline in 2025?
- Evangeline ranks #147 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,998 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Evangeline?
- About 1 in every 804 US girls born in 2025 was named Evangeline — 1,998 in all.
- Will my child share the name Evangeline with classmates?
- Evangeline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Evangeline
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aubrey#146 · Genevieve#148 · Kehlani#148 · Remi#145 · Natalia#144 · June#150 · Brielle#143 · Summer#151
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Evangeline? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Evangeline and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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