From the Welsh word 'afon' meaning river; also a well-known English place name.
Avon carries within it one of the oldest surviving words in the British Isles: the ancient Celtic root "abona," meaning simply "river." The word passed through Brittonic into the names of multiple waterways in England and Wales, most famously the River Avon that flows through Stratford-upon-Avon — the birthplace of William Shakespeare. This is the irony embedded in the Bard's hometown: Stratford-upon-Avon essentially means "the ford by the settlement on the river," with "Avon" being a Celtic word that the Anglo-Saxon settlers apparently absorbed without knowing it simply meant "river."
As a given name, Avon is rare and has been used for both boys and girls across different eras and cultures. It enjoyed a degree of use in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in Wales and among families with a fondness for place-derived or nature-derived names. The association with Shakespeare's river lends it a quiet literary prestige, while its melodic quality — two clean syllables, open vowels — gives it an appeal that transcends any single cultural moment.
In contemporary naming, Avon occupies interesting territory. It is distinct from the ubiquitous cosmetics brand (whose founder named his company after Shakespeare's river), and parents who choose it today are typically after something with genuine historical depth and a poetic natural resonance. It sits alongside names like Devon, Severn, and Wye in the category of British river names repurposed as given names, but Avon has the oldest, most storied lineage of them all — a word spoken on these islands before the Romans arrived.