Germanic name from 'eber' (boar) and 'hard' (brave/strong), meaning strong as a boar.
Evert is the Scandinavian and Low German form of Everard, a name assembled from the Germanic elements eber ("boar") and hard ("brave," "strong," "hardy") — a combination that would have resonated powerfully in a world where the wild boar was the most dangerous quarry a warrior could face, a creature of tremendous strength and lethal stubbornness. To be an Everard, or an Evert, was to possess the boar's virtues: ferocious when cornered, impossible to stop once committed, armored by nature against casual defeat. The name has deep roots in the Netherlands and northern Germany, where Evert appears in guild records, burgher lists, and church registers from the medieval period forward.
In Dutch history, Evert Willemsz Bogardus (c. 1607–1647) was the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam — present-day New York — making the name part of the foundation story of the city. The name also traveled to Sweden and Norway, where it remains in occasional use today, connecting its bearers to a pan-Germanic heritage of seafarers and merchants.
In contemporary English-speaking awareness, Evert is most immediately associated with Chris Evert (born Christine Marie Evert, 1954), the American tennis legend whose eighteen Grand Slam singles titles and decades of baseline dominance made her one of the sport's immortals. That association lends the name a quietly athletic elegance: controlled, precise, refusing to lose. As a given name today, Evert offers the appeal of something that sounds both antique and unexpectedly current — a Viking name that plays equally well on a business card and a birth announcement.