Eva (name)

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Eva is a female given name, the Latinate counterpart of English Eve, derived from Hebrew name meaning "life" or "living one." It is the standard biblical form of Eve in many European languages.

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[edit] Popularity

During the 1990 U.S. Census, approximately 0.159 percent of females counted had the first name Eva. The popularity of the name Eva has been consistently in the top 300s, according to the Social Security Administration website. Popularity peaked in 1889 when the name hit No. 31. It began to dip, gradually falling into top 300s, until the turn of the 21st century, when the frequency of the name Eva began to rise. In 2005 it sits at No. 129.

In England and Wales, Eva was reasonably popular around 1900, but it has been little used since, Eve and Evie being the preferred forms today. The name is traditionally more popular in Ireland and Scotland, as an anglicization of Gaelic Aoife "shining, radiant".

In continental Europe (particularly in Northern Europe after the Reformation) it is currently popular in Czech, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, Danish, Romanian, Hungarian, Spanish, German, Dutch, according to Google Trends. The Arabic equivalent of Eva is "Hawwa", used in the Adam and Eve creation myth and meaning "life."

[edit] Related names

  • Ava, well known in Ireland and Scotland as a rendering of Aoife. Fashionable in USA (no. 9 baby name in 2005) and British Canada (no. 6 in 2005).
  • Evie, becoming popular in England and Wales. In USA its popularity peak was in the 1880s.
  • Evita, Spanish diminutive, best known from Eva Perón
  • Evette

Names not actually related to Eva but associated with it by folk etymology include:

  • Aoife
  • Evangeline
  • Evelyn
  • Evaline
  • Evelyn
  • Evadne
  • Yvette
  • Yvonne

[edit] Famous Evas

In television and film:

In politics:

In music:

In modeling:

In literature:

  • Eva Gore-Booth (1870 - 1926), Irish poet and dramatist, and a committed suffragist, social worker and labour activist
  • Little Eva, fictional character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin; actually short for Evangeline

In other fields:

[edit] References

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