Evelyn

English

Etymology

Medieval English form of the Old French female name Aveline, diminutive of the Germanic root avi, of uncertain meaning, possibly "desired, wished for", or aval "strength". By folk etymology the female name is seen as a diminutive of Eve.

Proper noun

Evelyn

1. A female given name from the Germanic languages.
   • 1855 Robert Browning: Evelyn Hope:

     Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead! / Sit and watch by her side an hour.

   • 1980 Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children. Alfred A.Knopf 1981. →ISBN page 179:

     "I don't wear flowers," Evelyn Lilith said, and tossed the unwanted chain into the air, spearing it before it fell with a pellet from her unerring Daisy air-pistol. Destroying flowers with a Daisy, she served notice that she was not to be manacled, not even by a necklace: she was our capricious, whirligig Lill-of-the-Hill. And also Eve. The Adam's-apple of my eye.

2. A matronymic surname transferred from the given name
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.

Related terms

• Ava
• Eileen
• Eveleen
• Eveline

Translations

female given name

• Czech: Evelína (cs) f
• Estonian: Evelin
• Finnish: Eveliina (fi)
• French: Évelyne (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: Εβελίνα (el) (Evelína)
• Latvian: Evelīna f
• Polish: Ewelina (pl)
• Russian: Эвели́на (ru) f (Evelína), Э́велин f (Évelin) (transliteration)
• Swedish: Evelina (sv)

Anagrams

• evenly, levyne

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German

Proper noun

Evelyn

1. a female given name from English.

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Norwegian

Proper noun

Evelyn

1. a female given name from English.