FastNamesAva
Latin, Germanic and Persian name meaning "Multi-origin name stemming from Latin avis ('bird'), Germanic avi (possibly meaning 'desired' or 'island'), and Persian āvā ('voice' or 'sound').". Ranked 11th for girls in 2025.
Meaning and origin of Ava
Multi-origin name stemming from Latin avis ('bird'), Germanic avi (possibly meaning 'desired' or 'island'), and Persian āvā ('voice' or 'sound').
Linguistically, Ava is classified under Latin, Germanic and Persian naming traditions. It is typically pronounced "AY-vuh".
Popularity and ranking
In official US Social Security birth records from 1880 through 2025, Ava has been given to a total of 344,097 girls. It has also been given to 344 boys.
Peak year: Ava reached its highest relative share among girls in 2007, when 18,053 babies received the name (9,390 per million births).
All-time best rank: 3rd place, first achieved in 2016.
Recent standing (2025): Ranked 11th with 7,732 births. Ten years earlier in 2015, it ranked 4th (down 7 spots).
Busiest decade: More girls were named Ava in the 2010s than in any other decade (155,879 births).
| Decade | Recorded births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 279 |
| 1890s | 479 |
| 1900s | 533 |
| 1910s | 1,401 |
| 1920s | 1,590 |
| 1930s | 1,180 |
| 1940s | 1,346 |
| 1950s | 4,237 |
| 1960s | 2,342 |
| 1970s | 1,319 |
| 1980s | 1,416 |
| 1990s | 4,207 |
| 2000s | 104,539 |
| 2010s | 155,879 |
| 2020s | 63,350 |
Source: Social Security Administration, national baby name data, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.
Where Ava is most common in the US
Accounting for when Ava was in fashion nationally, it has been most heavily concentrated in the following states (measured against the expected rate from each state's births):
- Vermont: 2.0 times the national rate (605 births since 1910).
- Rhode Island: 1.9 times the national rate (1,381 births since 1910).
- Delaware: 1.8 times the national rate (1,154 births since 1910).
- New Hampshire: 1.6 times the national rate (1,481 births since 1910).
- North Dakota: 1.5 times the national rate (1,035 births since 1910).
Source: Social Security Administration, baby names by state, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a state in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.
How many people have the name Ava?
About 335,000 living American girls and women share the name Ava. Additionally, an estimated 330 living American boys and men share the name.
The median age of an American named Ava is 13 years old.
Estimated from Social Security Administration records (1880–2025) and official SSA cohort mortality tables.
History of the name Ava
Ava carries distinct etymological strands across multiple language families. In early medieval Germanic onomastics, Ava was recorded as a hypocoristic or pet form of longer dithematic names beginning with the element avi-, thought to signify 'desired' or 'island'. Concurrently, Latin scholars associated the name directly with avis, the noun for bird, symbolizing grace, freedom, and soaring flight. In Persian and Kurdish naming traditions, Āvā represents an independent feminine given name signifying voice, melody, or pleasing sound.
In religious and cultural history, Ava was borne by Saint Ava of Dinant, a ninth-century Frankish abbess renowned for being miraculously cured of blindness, and by Ava of Göttweig (c. 1060–1127), the first named female poet to write in any Germanic vernacular language. Despite this ancient heritage, Ava remained relatively uncommon in the English-speaking world until the twentieth century, when screen siren Ava Gardner (1922–1990) captivated moviegoers worldwide, investing the name with indelible Hollywood glamour and sophistication.
In United States demographic history, Ava was an infrequent choice through most of the twentieth century, lingering below the top 600 in Social Security registrations. Its modern ascent was extraordinary: beginning in the late 1990s, high-profile celebrity parents reintroduced the name to public awareness, sparking a meteoric rise. Ava bounded into the national top ten in 2005 and maintained a continuous position in the top five from 2006 through 2020, becoming a modern classic chosen by hundreds of thousands of American families.
Notable people named Ava
- Ava Gardner (1922–1990), American actress and Oscar nominee
- Ava DuVernay (1972–), American filmmaker and director
- Ava Max (1994–), American pop singer and songwriter
- Ava Phillippe (1999–), American model and artist
Variants and related names
Spelling variants
Diminutives and nicknames
Related names
Sources and references
- Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names (2006), p. 24.
- E. G. Withycombe. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (1977), p. 38.
- Douglas Harper. Online Etymology Dictionary. Reference link.