For me, Eva could easily be Aye-vah or Ee-vah and neither would seem odd. There used to be a poster on here named Eva-something and I always pronounced it in my head like Aye-vah.
But then again, I’m in Aaron/Erin territory where our accent makes those two sound identical.
I know a girl named Ava who has one French parent. They pronounce her name “Ah-va” and she’s made it to her senior year in high school so far without murder or mayhem!
Aye-vah or Ah-vah. Neither one is some offbeat name that will cause undue teasing. As far as pronunciation issues, it’ll build a little character. This comes from someone who had to correct pronunciation regarding my name often in life. It’s not that challenging and faced by most who aren’t a John Smith or a Jane Doe.
Or Ave…
The middle name is Maria.
I didn’t even think of Ah-va haha.
Even those of us with very “common” names constantly have to correct people. I can’t count the number of times that I have to tell people my name doesn’t have an “e” sound at the end. Think something like my name is “Nic” and people constantly want to call me “Nicki.” You just kind of get used to it.
Or a two-name first name, like Peggy Sue but people drop the Peggy inexplicable and call you Sue.
I’ve known a number of Eva’s in my life and they’ve all pronounced it AY-va. I’ve never met an EE- Va. In Southern California, Eva’s a fairly common Hispanic name, hence the AY-va pronunciation.
I’m not sure the Latina connection has anything to do with it, as EE-va Longoria would attest.
Has she ever actually said her name? There are several celebrities who simply allow their name to be constantly mispronounced. Rhianna is a good example.
But in Spanish, it would absolutely be AYE-vah. And Ava would be Ah-vah.
I live in the south. Where we live Eva is called EEE-vah…
My name ends in an A but but there is a similar name that ends in E which was more popular (in the 60’s/70’s). I’ve had to correct people all my life!
Longoria does pronounce her name Ee-vah in [this video](America Ferrera and Eva Longoria: Stop Mistaking Latina Actresses For Each Other - YouTube), while pronouncing Eva Mendes’ as Ay-vah. However, just because one Latina woman pronounces it Ee-vah, isn’t imo enough justification for dismissing the Hispanic connection to the Ay-vah pronunciation.
One of my daughter’s name is Anna. We pronounce it like Ann-ah…for some reason, some people in our area pronounce it Onna. It drives her crazy , but then I grew up with a name that is historically mis-pronounced too
AY-reel-el, AH-ree-el, Ah-ree-ELLE is one I encounter a lot for the name Ariel. No matter what the pronunciation, the owner of the name always dislikes the association with Disney!
There are two possible things going on here (though for Anna, the second is more likely).
The first is what sociolinguists and dialectologists call the “borrowed‑a” phenomenon—consider, for example, the first vowels in pasta and plaza and the second vowels of pajamas and Nevada—some varieties of English pronounce one or more with the same vowel as hat, others pronounce those same words with the same vowel as hot. (It’s nearly entirely regionally determined—so, for example, if you’re from most any part of anglophone Canada, it’s the hat vowel for all of them.) My wife and I both come from regions where all borrowed‑a words are pronounced with the hot vowel, and we named our two oldest names that have borrowed‑a vowels—only to then move with them to a region where most borrowed‑a vowels are produced with the hat vowel. We’d never imagined there could be any confusion with the pronunciations of their names—go figure.*
The second is a vowel shift that’s occurring across most of western and northern North America.** One of the things involved in it is that the short‑a vowel in the word hat gets produced differently than it historically has been—instead of the body of the tongue being more or less thrust forward while being kept low in the mouth, it’s kept low in the mouth but is pulled further back. The result is that, to speakers of other varieties, that vowel starts to sound like it’s the vowel in the word hot. (The vowel in the actual word hot gets produced, in turn, by the tongue being retracted even further toward the opening to the throat, so the actual distinction is retained.) This means that the short‑a in the name Anna*** can sound like it’s being pronounced with a vowel that isn’t a short‑a, even though it is still a short‑a, it’s just that short‑a gets pronounced differently in different places.
(And congratulations—if you’ve made it this far, you’ve now sat in on half of the class in sociolinguistics I’m teaching next semester.)
** If you’re interested in this, it’s easiest to find information on it if you search for the “California Vowel Shift”, but linguists haven’t settled on a single label for it—I’ve also seen Canadian Shift, Western Shift, Northwestern Shift, and Third Dialect Shift.
*** But not the identical vowel in Ann, which is produced differently because the n that follows is in the same syllable as the vowel. Sometimes linguistics gets complicated.
Dfb I want to sit in on your class.
One of my friends is named Abbey and she’s from the west coast. She hates the way we say her name here but I can’t tell the difference between how she says it and how we say it. But it has something to do with us stretching out the first syllable.
Ha, ha, I pronounce that name different from all those choices – more like Airy-el (stress on first syllable, with the “el” part sort of swallowed. (Airy as in light and airy.) And in my accent “air” and “err” are homonyms. So Ariel in my accent has the same first syllable as BOTH Aaron AND Erin.
Or, the fancy pronunciation is Are (as in how ARE you)- ee-EL.
Romani, I had a hilarious discussion with someone from Michigan with the last name “Moor.” The conversation consisted of my demanding to know whether his name was pronounced “More” or “Moor” (as in Moorish) and his insisting there was no difference.
There is no difference to me either lol. Both rhyme with boar or fore or door.
From New England here and I pronounce more, moor, fore, door, boar the same as well. Not everyone here speaks with a Maine or Boston accent.
Speaking of pronunciations, I found this pretty funny but maybe its because of my New England roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLwbzGyC6t4
Unlike in English, the vowels in Spanish only have one pronunciation. Therefore, Eva would be pronounced with the E sounding like the E in elephant. Just plain EVA. No AY, or AH or EE
Right. It’s the same “e” as in San Diego, for example, which to the American ear sounds like a long “a” sound even though it is half way between a short “e” and a long “a”.