Message: "Pronounciation of the name Eva"

Pronounciation of the name Eva

by Erica (guest)

8/9/2006, 4:44 PM

I have a daughter whom I named Eva and we pronounce it like the name "Ava." We do so because she is of Hispanic heritage and in Spanish the letter "E" is pronounced "A." I just wanted to clarify that Eva can be pronounced Ee-va or Ay-va as I saw some comments on here contradicting that.

#pronunciation

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- Agata (ADT)

8/12/2006, 8:59 PM

The Spanish letter "E" is not pronunced "A" - it's "eh" like the first E in Eleanor.

EH-bah in Spain. Or Madrid, where I grew up.
And EH-vah in South/Central American Spanish.

- Profe Esteban +1

8/10/2006, 12:46 PM

In Spanish, there's only one way to pronounce Eva: EH - bah.
Besides, there's no difference between "b" and "v": boths sound [b].

- Elena

8/10/2006, 7:59 PM

It's funny we're discussing the way the 'e' is pronounced in Spanish because I ate at a Mexican restaurant earlier this evening. In the front of the menu, they listed all of the dishes with a pronunciation guide included. Without exception, all of the 'e's' were pronounced with a long 'a' sound which is quite different from the way I was taught in high school Spanish class. Being the name nerd that I am, I wanted to ask the waiter how he pronounced my name (Elena). Alas, I chickened out because he spoke little English and I was afraid I couldn't convey what I meant. It's been a long time since I studied high school Spanish. ;-)

- Lissy (GLynElisabeth)

8/10/2006, 12:05 PM

I pronounce it as Ava, because in Holland it's the same like in Spanish, e is pronounced like a... so you are right, both pronunciations are legit!

~Lully Lulla~

- Elena +2

8/9/2006, 6:08 PM

I've seen the name pronounced three ways: EE-va, EH-va and AY-va. I grew up pronouncing it AY-va so it definitely is a legit pronunciation.

- Cass +1

8/9/2006, 8:11 PM

Isn't EH-va a more accurate rendering of the Spanish pronunciation than AY-va?

- Mar (X-Mar)

8/10/2006, 6:17 AM

I think EH-ba would be even more accurate, since the V is pronounced more as a B than a V.

- Mar (X-Mar)

8/9/2006, 5:10 PM

In the Netherlands it's pronounced AY-vah, so that's definately one legit pronunciation.

- lawruh

8/9/2006, 5:01 PM

Yes, it can. I don't really know about Spanish, but Eva Braun (German) was Hitler's, uhm, girlfriend? and her name was pronounced AY-va.

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