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 name Eve is seen as a diminutive of the female given name. Doublet of Eileen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (female given name) /ˈɛvəlɪn/, (male given name) /ˈiːvlɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

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, published 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 surname originating as a matronymic.
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.

   Evelyn Waugh

Related terms

• Ava
• Eileen
• Eveleen
• Eveline
• Ev
• Evelynn

Translations

female given name

• Czech: Evelína (cs) f
• Estonian: Evelin
• Finnish: Eveliina (fi)
• French: Évelyne (fr)
• Greek: Εβελίνα (el) (Evelína)
• Hungarian: Evelin (hu)
• Irish: Eibhlín f
• Latvian: Evelīna f
• Polish: Ewelina (pl)
• Portuguese: Evelina f, Evelin f
• Russian: Эвели́на (ru) f (Evelína), Э́велин f (Évelin) (transliteration)
• Swedish: Evelina (sv)

Anagrams

• evenly, levyne

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Proper noun

Evelyn

1. a female given name from English

Norwegian

Proper noun

Evelyn

1. a female given name from English