The problem is that your mother's friend was wrong. The Welsh
Evan is a male name and is pronounced EV-an (click here:
Evan for details). There is no female Welsh name '
Evan', although the male name is occasionally used for girls in the US.
Your name, although it wasn't intended that way, is a made up name. There is no tradition of a name spelled Yvan and pronounced ee-VAN.
The closest is the French feminine name
Yvonne (ee-VON), which means "yew", or, as you say, the Irish feminine name
Eavan (EE-van) which means "beautiful sheen".
It's essentially up to you how you interpret the meaning of your name from here. The most logical conclusion would be to regard it as an American variation of
Yvonne or an American feminine form of
Evan.
Hope that helps!
PS - I had a look at your website :-) I'm a member of Tol Harndor, the Australasian smial of the Tolkien Society. Go LotR fans! :-D
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
This message was edited 3/19/2005, 7:07 PM