Variant of Yvonne, from the Old French Yvon, meaning "yew tree."
Evon is an anglicized variant of Yvonne, a name with deep roots in the old Germanic forests. Yvonne derives from the Old French masculine name Yvon, itself from the Germanic element "iv" or "iw" — the yew tree, that ancient evergreen associated with longevity, death and rebirth, and the formidable English longbow. The yew was among the most sacred trees in pre-Christian northern European traditions, planted in churchyards across Britain and France as a symbol of eternal life, its extraordinary lifespan — some specimens live three thousand years — making it a natural emblem of continuity.
A name from the yew tree is a name from something that outlasts empires. Yvonne gained wide currency in France from the medieval period onward and spread through the Francophone world and beyond in the 19th and 20th centuries. Several Saint Yvonnes provided religious currency, while the name appeared regularly among French nobility.
In English-speaking countries, the Evon spelling emerged as a natural phonetic rendering, stripping the name of its French accoutrements and giving it a more forthright Anglo character — the "y" becoming an "e," the double-n collapsing to one. The result sounds both familiar and slightly exotic, recognizable to ears that know Yvonne but fresher on the eye. Evon enjoyed its highest American usage in the mid-20th century, making it a name with a cool retro quality today — sleek and mid-century in the way Evelyn and Vera are, but less revived and therefore more genuinely individual.