Why call her "Eva" but pronounce it differently?

[anxietycentralallthetime]

Hope this isn't too outing.
Basically there's a little girl that goes to the same nursery as my kids.
So on her peg, her coat, her bag, on the class list for party invites etc her name is written "Eva". However when you speak to her mum and say "oh did Eva get the party invite" etc, then her mum will reply "it's Ava. Just spelt with an E"
All the nursery staff call her Ava too.
This mum appears very normal and intelligent, so can anyone explain why you'd name your daughter Eva, but make everyone pronounce it Ava? Do you think she named her Eva and then preferred Ava?
Or is Ava a known pronunciation for the name Eva?
Most weeks I hear her mum correcting parents and other members of staff within the nursery.
I'm too polite to ask her myself!

Ava is a perfectly normal, known way of pronouncing Eva. One of the two equally correct ways in fact.

Germans would say "ay-va" (ay as in hay, day, sleigh) spelt Eva.

It's the German pronunciation. Are they German? Fine if so; if not it's a bit daft to pronounce one popular name in the same way as a different and also very popular name...

Eva Peron was pronounced Ava.

I worked with an Eva, pronounced Ava. It confused me for a few months! Is she Dutch?

"Ava" would be the normal pronunciation of Eva in several languages - Italian for one.

In the Scandi countries they pronounce Aeva/Ayva as well

I've never heard of Eva being pronounced Ava, Eefa, yes but never Ava. I bet the child will be constantly correcting people, just like her mum seems to be doing every week.

I would automatically pronounce Eva as Ava. It's a perfectly reasonable pronunciation!

It's the correct pronunciation, as it's a German/Dutch/Spanish word for Eve!

I thought she must be german. This kind of this is difficult if you aren't Emglish. I knew a Spanish nun who thought her dd would be pronounced Eese - a - bell and was horrified to hear her called Isabel. She changed her name

Not nun a mum

If I didn't have any other indication of which pronunciation was being used, I'd go for the Ava pronunciation as the most likely and Eeva as the next most likely.

It's a perfectly normal way of pronouncing the name.

She was a nun?

Oh ok. So it's a perfectly normal pronunciation? You learn something new every day. Don't think they're German or Dutch? But surely if you want it pronounced Ava then it's easier to spell it Ava?

I have a nearly 14 year old Ava. Dh wanted to spell it Eva, like Eva Peron. I said no, because I would automatically pronounce that name Eeva. And, at the time, Ava was quite unusual (oh, happy time), so I wanted to make sure people would pronounce it correctly.

I agree, there must be a Spanish / German / Italian / etc connection there.

For our own DC we tried to avoid names that are pronounced differently in both languages. Not always easy or even possible, especially if you want a name you actually like! In the end we compromised to avoid the Ava /Eva situation.

I knew someone who pronounced it 'Ever'. Maybe Polish, can't remember.

The mum gets a bit stroppy correcting people too. She never says "it's the German pronounciation" tho, just says "it's Ava with an E" Surely Ava with an E is Eva?!

My friend is Norwegian, spelled Eva, pronounced more of an Eyva, but not Ayva with a rounded 'A'.

It probably would be easier to spell it Ava but maybe it's in honour of a Spanish/Italian/Dutch/German relation so spelling is not negotiable.

I would pronounce it that way too.

I would pronounce Eva as either Eeva or Ay (rhyme with hay) va.

I would automatically pronounce Ava as Ah va, though I recognise that it can also be Ay va.

But if I just heard "Ay va" I would assume it was spelled Eva at first.

Ava would not be pronounced Ay-va in most of the languages where Eva is pronounced Ay-va.