Ava definition

Etymology

There was a Frankish ninth century St. Ava (of the Germanic root avi, related to Evelyn), but the English Ava seems to date from the nineteenth century as a variant of Eva. It has also been used as an anglicization of Celtic Aoife "radiant".

Proper noun

. Popular in the 2000s in all English-speaking countries.

Quotations

1881 Mary E. Jackson: The Spy of Osawatomie; or, The Mysterious Companions of Old John Brown, W.S.Bryan 1881, page 57

Ava Haynes, the oldest daughter, was a warm friend of Lillie Calhoun, whom she soon sought and led quickly into the conservatory.
2004 Gayle Brandeis, The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel, HarperCollins, ISBN 0060528044, page 5

My mother named me Ava because she liked how the English letters looked - the big A a beak pointed upward, the v a sharp slash of wings, the small a round and flat as a parrot's eye.