Ava

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 Irish Aoife (literally “beautiful”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪvə/
• Rhymes: -eɪvə

Ava

1. A female given name. Popular in the 2000s in all English-speaking countries.
   • 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, 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.

2. A city in Illinois.
3. A city in Missouri, and the county seat of Douglas County.
4. A town in New York.
5. An unincorporated community in Ohio.

From Portuguese, from the Upper Burmese pronunciation of အင်းဝ (ang:wa. /ăwá/).

• Inwa

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑːvə/

Ava

1. (historical) An abandoned city in central Burma, formerly the capital of the country.

• AAV