Ava

See also: ava, avá, āva, -ava, 'ava, and åvå

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪvə/
• Rhymes: -eɪvə

Proper noun

Ava

1. A female given name from Hebrew, a variant of Eva.
   • 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 female given name from Irish, an anglicization of Aoife.
3. A female given name from the Germanic languages, from a Germanic root *avi of uncertain meaning.
4. A locale in the United States.
   1. A city in Illinois.
   2. A city in Missouri; the county seat of Douglas County.
   3. An unincorporated community in Alabama.
   4. An unincorporated community in Arkansas.
   5. An unincorporated community in Ohio.

Usage notes

The female given name was popular in the 2000s in all English-speaking countries.

Etymology 2

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

Alternative forms

• Inwa

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑːvə/

Proper noun

Ava

1. (historical) An abandoned city in central Burma, formerly the capital of the country.
2. A town in New York, United States; named for the Kingdom of Ava.

Anagrams

• AAV