Irish Gaelic form of Eva/Eve, derived from Hebrew 'Havah' meaning 'life' or 'living.'
Eabha is the Old Irish form of Eva or Eve, and one of the oldest feminine names in continuous use in any European tradition. It derives from the Hebrew *חַוָּה* (Chavah or Hawwah), meaning 'life,' 'living,' or 'source of life' — a name given, according to the Book of Genesis, to the first woman as a recognition that she would become the mother of all living things. Through Latin and Greek transmission, Hava became Eva, and through the Gaelic languages, it became Eabha, preserving the ancient root in an entirely different phonetic clothing.
In Ireland, Eabha (pronounced *AY-va*, identically to Ava) has been used continuously since the early medieval period and carries deep resonance in Irish literary and religious culture. Several Irish saints bore variants of the name, and it appears throughout early Irish genealogical texts. The name enjoyed a significant revival in Ireland during the late 20th and early 21st centuries as part of a broader reclamation of Irish-language names — a cultural movement that has brought Caoimhe, Aoife, Siobhán, and Saoirse to international attention.
Eabha occupies a fascinating position in the contemporary naming landscape: it is phonetically identical to Ava, one of the most popular girls' names in the English-speaking world for over a decade, yet its spelling marks it as distinctly, defiantly Irish. For Irish families in the diaspora, Eabha is an act of cultural preservation — a way of giving a daughter both accessibility and roots. The name's visual strangeness to non-Irish readers is itself a conversation starter, an invitation to learn something about one of Europe's oldest living languages.