Ava Name Meaning

Holding steady in the hearts of many due to her strong sound and easy spelling, Ava is a popular choice for moms-to-be today. She’s spunky yet sweet, offering loads of character in a compact package. She’s also a palindrome which earns her extra cool points.

After a long span of modest popularity, Ava shot to the U.S. Top Ten first in 2005. With no signs of slowing, she’ll continue to be a playground staple for years to come, making personalized items an easy find for any little Ava.

Ava fits in well with her popular sisters, matching the old-world charm of Sophia and Emma as well as the short and sweet spunk of Mia. She also has that oh-so-popular V sound found in Olivia and Evelyn.

An attractive attribute of Ava for many is the lack of inherent nicknames, allowing parents to avoid abbreviated monikers that they may not like. Ava’s short spelling and unique sound banish nicknames for good.

A variant of the Hebrew name Eve, Ava is the most-often used spelling in the English language. Her sister variant, Eva, is pronounced the same and is used in her place in Europe and beyond.

If you’re worried about popularity, similar names including Ada, Etta, Emme, and Una have the edge of Ava without widespread usage.

Infographic of Ava name meaning, which is Ava is a Latin variant of Eve, meaning to live.
Ask your friends & family about Ava…

Ava Name Popularity

How popular is the name Ava? Here’s everything we know.

Year Rank # Births % Births
1910 505 30 0.0085%
1911 479 37 0.0099%
1912 578 38 0.0075%
1913 488 66 0.0116%
1914 445 107 0.0154%
1915 470 127 0.014%
1916 479 135 0.014%
1917 505 128 0.0128%
1918 514 136 0.0127%
1919 537 123 0.0117%
1920 505 144 0.013%
1921 522 139 0.0121%
1922 584 112 0.0101%
1923 550 126 0.0112%
1924 564 125 0.0108%
1925 569 116 0.0103%
1926 564 110 0.01%
1927 569 110 0.0099%
1928 584 101 0.0094%
1929 617 84 0.0081%
1930 576 97 0.0093%
1931 548 99 0.01%
1932 545 102 0.0103%
1933 573 83 0.0089%
1934 539 105 0.0109%
1935 631 65 0.0067%
1936 602 77 0.008%
1937 617 77 0.0078%
1938 724 50 0.0049%
1939 741 47 0.0046%
1940 775 44 0.0041%
1941 852 37 0.0033%
1942 639 93 0.0074%
1943 753 61 0.0047%
1944 827 43 0.0035%
1945 836 42 0.0034%
1946 733 78 0.0053%
1947 611 144 0.0086%
1948 618 135 0.0085%
1949 536 190 0.0118%
1950 469 253 0.0157%
1951 421 351 0.0207%
1952 431 349 0.02%
1953 389 429 0.0242%
1954 374 494 0.027%
1955 389 475 0.0258%
1956 394 480 0.0254%
1957 450 395 0.0205%
1958 496 331 0.0175%
1959 526 293 0.0154%
1960 533 285 0.015%
1961 620 223 0.0118%
1962 607 224 0.0122%
1963 587 240 0.0134%
1964 618 218 0.0124%
1965 630 192 0.0117%
1966 696 145 0.0093%
1967 722 137 0.009%
1968 730 133 0.0089%
1969 740 137 0.0089%
1970 768 138 0.0087%
1971 838 112 0.0075%
1972 809 113 0.0083%
1973 1,100 54 0.0042%
1974 965 77 0.0059%
1975 1,003 71 0.0055%
1976 1,270 42 0.0033%
1977 1,198 55 0.0041%
1978 1,075 73 0.0054%
1979 1,025 86 0.0061%
1980 1,210 62 0.0042%
1981 1,010 91 0.0062%
1982 1,189 63 0.0042%
1983 1,445 38 0.0026%
1984 953 102 0.0069%
1985 1,034 91 0.006%
1986 949 113 0.0075%
1987 963 115 0.0075%
1988 1,005 111 0.0071%
1989 1,016 120 0.0074%
1990 963 145 0.0087%
1991 853 186 0.0114%
1992 854 186 0.0117%
1993 747 227 0.0146%
1994 747 229 0.0149%
1995 735 229 0.0152%
1996 755 230 0.0154%
1997 639 301 0.0204%
1998 358 776 0.0518%
1999 263 1,179 0.0787%
2000 180 1,778 0.1164%
2001 132 2,531 0.168%
2002 81 3,749 0.2502%
2003 39 6,280 0.4128%
2004 25 8,644 0.5671%
2005 9 13,605 0.8898%
2006 5 16,938 1.0817%
2007 4 18,047 1.1438%
2008 5 17,035 1.1022%
2009 5 15,867 1.0616%
2010 5 15,429 1.0707%
2011 5 15,496 1.0877%
2012 5 15,529 1.0897%
2013 5 15,249 1.071%
2014 5 15,688 1.0768%
2015 4 16,361 1.1244%
2016 3 16,283 1.1293%
2017 3 15,902 1.1394%
2018 3 14,924 1.0863%
2019 3 14,440 1.0667%
2020 3 12,880 1.0119%
2021 5 11,806 0.9658%
2022 7 11,039 0.8368%

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Data via SSA.gov.

Names Like Ava

If you like Ava, you’ll love these other names like Ava.

What names are variants of Ava?

Mix it up with these names that are a variation of the name Ava.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Avah
Avalee
Avelina

Unknown

German

Aveline

Hazelnut

French

Avelyn
Avis

Songbird

French

Avlynn
Eva

Life

Hebrew

Eve

Life, animal

Latin

What names sound like Ava?

If you like how Ava sounds, you might also like these names that sound like Ava.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Ada

Noble one

German

Ave

Hail

Latin

Avery

Elf counsel

English

Aviana

Birdlike

Latin

Iva

God is gracious

Slavic

What names are similar to Ava?

Find a name that’s like Ava, but just a little bit different.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Adelaide

Noble one

German

Bella

Beautiful one

Italian

Edie

Strife for wealth

English

Ella

Other goddess

Hebrew

Emma

Whole or universal

German

Evelyn

Desired one

English

Evie

Life

English

Ivy

Ivy plant

English

Olivia

Olive tree

Latin

Sophia

Wisdom

Greek

Lists With Ava

Find inspiration in these baby girl name lists featuring the name Ava.

Siblings of Ava

Mamas with kids named Ava also have kids with these names.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Sicily

Sicily island

Italian

Tyler

Tiler

English

Elizabeth

God is my oath

Hebrew

Skylar

Noble scholar

English

53 Comments

  1. It’s short, sweet and timeless

    Reply

  2. We feel in love with the name when we were going through name options! Not only did it seem like a cute name for a little girl but also a mature name for the grown woman she will be one day & while referring to her in my belly that name just stuck it truly seemed to be a perfect match for our baby girl!

    Reply

  3. I LOVE the name Ava with all my heart. Me and my husband adored the name Ava for the longest time and always wanted to name our future daughter it. Once I found out a daughter I knew instantly Ava was going to be her name. Now my Ava is 5 with a little brother. We never regretted in the past 5 years naming her Ava!

    Reply

  4. I chose Ava as my husband and I are very Godly people. We couldn’t agree on a name so I prayed for a name to be revealed that we would love. One night I had a dream about the name Ava Grace. I shot up out of bed woke my husband up and said, “hey, what do you think about the name Ava Grace?” And he surprisingly said I love it. I later looked to see if Ava had any biblical meaning and found out it does mean Life in Hebrew. She is a precious life that brought light back into ours.?

    Reply

  5. We picked the name Ava before we found out she was a girl. No in particular reason other than it felt right 🙂
    We love how simple and beautiful her name is, it matches her face and personality so well. The only thing I’m not a fan of is how close her name is to her cousin Eve that was born 1 week before Ava. Other than that her name is perfect and she is perfect!

    Reply

  6. In Persian Ava spells as ( Ah-Va ) and it means beautiful song ? ?

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  7. Ava is not a latin variant of the name, Eve is not a Hebrew/Arabic variant of the name.
    This etymology is far out. In Hebrew/Arabic it’s Hava, meaning life. In latin the word should be viv- (latin has lots and lots of endings on a word, so we get words like vivre, vivus, vivo.)
    Genesis 3.20 After this Adam named his wife Eve(Hebrew: Hava), because she was to become the mother of all the living (Hebrew: Hai).

    Reply

  8. I love short strong names. Ava means to live or breathe and our girl is beautiful, strong, healthy and living her best life

    Reply

  9. I chose Ava as my daughter name because it’s a beautiful name

    Reply

  10. Me and my husband were on the way home from work one day (it’s a 45 min drive) and I was scrolling through lists of baby names on Google and saw the name Ava on one of the lists. I liked it and then proceeded to Google the meaning of the name Ava and it turns out that it means “lively” or “Breath of life” and since, at the time, it hadn’t been long since my dad had passed away, life after death was such a beautiful thing to me and that was when we decided to choose the name Ava for our baby girl. I think the meaning of the name is the reason why I liked it so much and the fact that it was such a perfect time in my life to move on from my grief and well, the name suits her so well! She is such a lively, happy and energetic little baby. I think we definitely chose the right name for our little princess.

    Reply

  11. Want a short and sweet name plus biblical. Also was using my patern initial with an A, this name was one of my top fives. I dislike that pronunciation in Spanish.

    Reply

  12. My first daughter was always going to be named Ava, I had this name picked out years in advance.

    Reply

  13. My baby’s name is Ava-Grace which means gift from God. I didnt want more than one name because I feel like we never use our second names. So my best friend recommended Ava and I chose Grace.

    Reply

  14. My baby girl is named Ava Cecilia. Ava because I wanted to continue with an A name like my sister and I have. My mom gave us A names to honor her mother, Amparo, which means protection in Spanish. We did not meet her as she died from scleroderma before we were born.
    We chose Cecilia to honor my grandmother on my dad’s side. She was a strong, disciplined, and hard working person. Also I chose a short first name to go well with Rodriguez. 🙂

    Reply

    • Ava is the name of a pornstar i love

      Reply

  15. There were two meanings we found when looking into the name Ava. One is ‘bird,’ but the other is ‘life.’ Ava is a variation of ‘Eve,’ which means ‘life.’ We prayed for a baby for many years, and when we finally found out we were having a girl, this name was the winner. We are thankful for her life!
    My husband also likes that this name is palindrome & symmetrical. 🙂

    Reply

  16. I love the name Ava, especially with her middle name Dior. It has a confident, yet soft ring to it.

    I dislike that there are a lot of other Ava’s in our circles.

    Ava is a beautiful doll! I love her so much.

    Reply

  17. Well I wanted her name to start with an A and something that flows together and easy for her to spell the name. I just really like her nam

    Reply

  18. Easy to spell, and goes with most middle names.

    Reply

  19. She is Ava Marie, born on the Catholic feast day celebrating the day the Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul. “Ava Marie” is a play on the Latin “Ave Maria,” which means Hail Mary.

    Reply

  20. It was a name I had never heard before after literally going through every baby name list there is. I love the simplicity of it while still sounding elegant & sophisticated.

    Reply

  21. Just loved the name ?

    Reply

  22. Timeless and beautiful

    Reply

  23. I work in Education, so I was suggesting names to a co-worker “Uncle Frankie“, and we thought of all sorts of scenarios: If she writes her name in the standardized test boxes I wanted something that was short and would fit. If the teacher had students line up alphabetically her last name would put her towards the back of the line. I was also considering the name Paris and Uncle Frankie mentioned she would still be close to last. So I decided on Ava because it’s 3 letters like my first name, she’ll be in the front if teachers use first names, and it worked well with her other siblings first names that begin with B and C 🙂

    Reply

  24. We just loved the name Ava. Very elegant and beautiful.

    Reply

    • My nAme is Ava too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Reply

  25. Like the name, family name

    Reply

  26. I have always loved the sound of the name Ava. It also is a variation of Eve, which being a Christian means a lot to me. My husband is part Jewish and in the Hebrew language it means Life and our little lady is truly full of life.

    Reply

  27. I fell in love with the name AVA means life her dad’s name starts with the letter A and I added 2 letters in my name(eVAngeline) i’m wishing a baby girl to mama mary, reciting 9 days novena every month as practiced to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.
    then upon UTZ my OB told me that it’s a girl!, so i named my baby AVA ROSARY.??

    Reply

  28. Needed a A name to match my daughter Amor. I wanted it short sweet n classy… came up with ava and couldn’t let it go…

    Reply

  29. We chose this name for the meaning–life! We want our girl to live a life full of meaning and grace and passion!

    Reply

  30. Ava means life so I wanted to name her something that had meaning after I lost my first daughter.

    Reply

    • My sweet Ava (Ava Iszabella Rae) was given a 0% chance of survival. I had doctors urging me to choose a late term abortion. (I am pro choice) but my personal choice is not to.
      I got 10 years with that perfect specimen. 10 happy wonderful amazing years.
      Ava was the only name she could have had.

      Reply

  31. We loved it. She was conceived on a full moon and born on one ten moons later so we chose a name we loved and ironically enough, it’s a palindrome!

    Reply

  32. I was looking at baby names one day and I came across the name “Ava.” It means to live. Since then I couldn’t get the name out of my head! I completely fell in love with it!

    Reply

  33. I chose the name Ava by going through a list of girls names.

    I chose Ava because it was simple and cute.

    Reply

  34. I’m all about less common names, and have always been in love with Ava and knew that’s what I would name my daughter.

    Reply

  35. Ava is a beautiful name! I have always wanted name My daughter this name!

    Reply

  36. Ava is full of spunk and energy. She can already roll over and lift herself up on her arms during tummy time.

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  37. She’s named Ava because it’s an A name like her father Aaron & Grace because it’s biblical.

    Reply

  38. I came up with the name

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  39. It’s very pretty and elegant

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  40. I chooses ava because nobody has that name

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  41. I just came up with her name her father name starts with an A so I named her with an A beautiful name

    Reply

  42. I chose the name because before I found out we were pregnant I had a dream I had a girl that turned into an eagle so I chose Ava which means bird like…there is nothing that I dislike about my daughters name

    Reply

  43. The name Ava is derived from the name Eve so we loved that it has a modern feel to it, but with Christian roots.

    Reply

  44. We chose her middle name first – Jean, after her great grandmother – so then we needed to find something that matched. We went with Ava because we wanted something classic that would take her from childhood to adult seamlessly.

    Reply

  45. Nice and simple..meaning life

    Reply

  46. Unique name for a unique lil girl

    Reply

  47. I actually first heard the name Ava in a movie when I was about 4 months pregnant. We knew we were having a girl, but hadn’t found a name that felt right yet. After watching the movie I asked my boyfriend what he thought about the name and he said he didn’t hate it but it wasn’t his favorite, either. About a month later, he started referring to the baby as Ava, and we felt like it just stuck ever since! We chose the middle name Grace because we both have family on either side of the family with that name, which seemed special. 🙂

    Reply

  48. We chose Ava because it’s a hebrew name and means life. We love the name and it flows well with Lola.

    Reply

    • I have 2 girls.
      My first born is Ava Iszabella Rae
      And My 2nd is Lola Arizona Julliette
      Do you really have an Ava AND a Lola??? Thats so awesome ?

      Reply

  49. I loved the name Avangeline but my husband wasn’t fond of it so we settled on Ava. Her name is Ava Krystine

    Reply

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