Eva

161,325 people in America carry this name — ranked #346 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it AY vuh

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

EY1 V AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 161,325 2020 Census
  • Rank #346 Common
  • As a surname 786 ranked #31,542 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Eva

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “life”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Eva through the years

273,365 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1918, with 4,575 of them.

80 90 00 10 20s 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1920s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Eva

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Eva Elizabeth — same opening
  • Eva Emily — same opening
  • Eva Ashley — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Eva is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Eva a boy's or a girl's name?

0.2% men
160,995 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Same syllables and stress as Eva

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Where in America Eva is thickest on the ground

In Alaska the name is given 1.4 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Alaska ×1.4
  • New Mexico ×1.4
  • Washington ×1.3
  • Nevada ×1.3
  • the District of Columbia ×1.2

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How Eva is spelled

Eva is how 39% of them spell it — 415,580 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it First-Year Costs

Open First-Year Costs on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin