Ava (given name)

Pronunciation	/ˈeɪvə/ AY-və /ˈɑːvə/ AH-və
Gender	feminine
Word/name	various

Ava is a feminine given name in the English and in other languages. Its recent popularity may be linked to a number of celebrity babies of the 1990s, who were ultimately named after American actress Ava Gardner (who had died in 1990).

The medieval name Ava is an abbreviation of a Germanic name containing the first element aw-, of uncertain meaning. Old High German (8th to 9th centuries) dithematic feminine names with this element include Avagisa, Avuldis, Awanpurc, Auwanildis.

Saint Ava was a 9th-century princess, daughter of Pepin II of Aquitaine. Ava was also the name of a medieval German woman poet. This name is the origin of the Norman French name of Aveline, which in turn gave rise to the English given name of Evelyn.

As evidence for the name is lacking between the later medieval and the modern period, the Oxford Dictionary of First Names supposes that it was coined anew as a modern innovation, presumably as a variant of Eva, or (like Eva) used as an anglicization of the Irish name Aoife.

Āvā is also a feminine given name in the Persian language, meaning "voice, sound".

In the Russian language, Ava (А́ва) may be a diminutive form of either the female names Avelina,Avenira,Aventina,Avgusta/Avgustina,Aviafa, Aviya (a form of Abijah),Avreliya,Avreya, and Avrora (a form of Aurora), or the male names Avdey,Avel,Avenir,Aventin,Avgust,Avim, Avram (a form of Abram),Avrelian, and Avrely.

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