Ava

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Aabha in IN India, Abad in ES Spain, Abha in FR France and อาภา in TH Thailand.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 24 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Ava is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name100K records spelled Ava22 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Brazil, Philippines

  Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written A-Va, Avá, Ãva, Åva, Inwa

• German given name12K records spelled Ava20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, Switzerland

  Languages: German, Turkish, English

  Also written Aeva, A-Va, Ãva, Avà, Ävä

• Russian given name4.3K records spelled Ava45 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, United States

  Languages: Russian, Polish, Ukrainian

  Also written Ава, А-Ва, A-Va, Àvą, Àvå

• Arabic given name2.5K records spelled Ava2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Egypt, United States, Syria, United Arab Emirates

  Also written A-Va

• Indonesian given name2.2K records spelled Ava6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Indonesia, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written A-Va, Àva, Åvå

57 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Ava is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In French, Hebrew origin, from Chava/Eve, meaning “living” or “life”.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In French, Breton feminine form of Abel; linked to Hebrew Hava/Eve.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In French, Nom ancien, peut-être de racine germanique ou hébraïque; fête selon le calendrier local.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In German, weibl. Vom. germanischer Herkunft, dessen Ausgangsform nicht sicher zu ermit­ teln ist (vielleicht altsächs. aval »Kraft«).

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Kurdish, Water, prosperous

  as a word·kurdi.sh Kurdish personal names dictionary

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ava Willing Astorb. 1868USAmerican socialite (1868–1958)
• Ava Helen Paulingb. 1903USAmerican activist
• Ava Gardnerb. 1922USAmerican actress (1922–1990)
• Ava DuVernayb. 1972USAmerican film director
• Ava Vincentb. 1975USAmerican pornographic actress
• Ava Addamsb. 1979FRAmerican pornographic actress
• Ava Maxb. 1994USAmerican singer and songwriter (born 1994)
• Ava Michelleb. 2002USAmerican actress (born 2002)
• Ava Acresb. 2004USAmerican actress
• Ava Kolkerb. 2006USAmerican actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,151 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ava?

We estimate roughly 277 thousand people bear Ava (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Ava have the most bearers?

We estimate about 257 thousand people bear Ava in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled ava.

How common is Ava compared with other names?

In Trinidad & Tobago, Ava is the 14th most common given name of 7,628 given names recorded there.

Is Ava a male or female name?

Ava is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ava mean?

Recorded meaning: Origin uncertain; possibly from medieval Germanic names or Latin avis 'bird'.