Eva
Meaning of Eva
Eva is the form of Eve used in Latin and in many European languages. It comes from the Hebrew name Chavah, which is usually understood to mean 'life' or 'living'. In English it is pronounced EE-vuh, and in German AY-fah.
In Genesis, Adam named the first woman Eve because she was 'the mother of all living'. In literature, Little Eva is the young girl who befriends Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Notable Evas include actresses Eva Longoria, of Desperate Housewives, and Eva Green, who played Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale.
In the U.S., Eva reached its highest rank, 31st, in 1889. It then declined through most of the 20th century, reaching 361st in 1997, before climbing back to 73rd in 2017. It has slipped since then, ranking 134th in 2025 with 2,154 babies.
Pronunciation
German
- Pronunced as AY-fah (/aɪ̯fa/)
English
- Pronunced as EE-vuh (/ˈiːvə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Eva
| Eva Longoria is an American actress, producer, director, and entrepreneur best known for Desperate Housewives, with three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe nomination, and an Imagen Award for Overboard. |
| Eva Hesse was a German-born American sculptor who pioneered the use of latex, fiberglass, and plastics, helping launch postminimal art in the 1960s. |
| Eva Green is a French actress known for complex, often villainous roles, debuting in The Dreamers and later playing Sibylla in Kingdom of Heaven and Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, which earned her the BAFTA Rising Star Award. |
| Eva Cassidy was an American singer with a powerful soprano known for emotive jazz, folk, and blues interpretations, who released The Other Side and Live at Blues Alley before dying of melanoma at 33 in 1996, largely unknown outside Washington DC. |
| Eva Mendes is an American actress who began her career in the late 1990s with roles in films like Children of the Corn V Fields of Terror and Urban Legends Final Cut. |
| Eva Striker Zeisel, a Hungarian-born American industrial designer, created nature-inspired ceramic forms collected by major museums worldwide and called herself a maker of useful things. |
| Eva Adams was an American official who led the United States Mint from 1961 to 1969. |
| Eva Herzigová - Eva Herzigova is a Czech supermodel and actress best known for the 1994 Wonderbra Hello Boys campaign and her 1990s prominence on runways and magazine covers for top fashion houses. |
| Eva Maria Navarro Garcia is a Spanish forward for Real Madrid and the Spain national team. |
| Eva Bischoff, known as Eva Herman, is a German author and former TV presenter who anchored Tagesschau from 1989 to 2006, hosted NDR shows until 2007, and was named Germanys favorite presenter in a 2003 poll. |
| Eva Ekeblad, a Swedish agriculturist and salon hostess, pioneered using potatoes to make alcohol and flour, easing famine, and became the first woman in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. |
| Eva Amurri is an American actress. |
| Eva Padberg is a German model, singer and actress. |
