What are your thoughts on the girl name Evelyn?

[jasminnie]

Let me know your opinions

I love it but the ambiguity of pronunciation would put me off using it as a first name.

Love it, but am biased as it was my Grandma's name, my daughter has it as her middle name. We pronounce it Eve-lyn, same as my Grandma did xx

Love Evie, not keen on Evelyn

Lovely in principle - its just a shame it’s become so trendy over the last 20 years or so (it began to rise rapidly in popularity after it was used in The Mummy and Pearl Harbour films for the main characters).

It also has the problem of multiple pronunciations- most younger people use the American 3 syllable one now (like in the films); but many older Brits still defer to 2 syllable “Eve- lyn” or “Ev-lyn”. My Great-gran was an “Eve-lyn” and I’d love to use the name but its trendiness and multiple pronunciations puts me off a bit. I’m considering Eve instead for simplicity (her nn was Eve).

Agree with this. I work with an Evelyn. Everyone pronounces it differently. Would drive me mad.

I have a 19 year old Evelyn (pronounced Ev-lyn) she loves it, I love it and we haven't encountered any others on her journey through school.

You lost me at her journey through school.

I like it. Classy

Love it

Only around 15 girls in England and Wales are named it each year. In contrast there were 1,673 Evelyn's born in 2023 🙄

Just to add, whilst I know quite a few Evelyns, they all use the 'Ev-Lyn' pronunciation and none are known to me, at least, as Evie.

Not common around here - NE Scotland. In 40 years I only taught one. She was English so got very annoyed when we all pronounced it as Ev-eh-lyn rather than Eve-eh-lyn.

Love it but don’t like that it can be said three ways

Why would it ever be pronounced Ever-lyn? There's no r

I love it but agree it is getting popular.

@RaraRachael , they mean Ev-uh-lyn (as opposed to Evlin or Eve-lyn)

Ok, but popular and shortened to Evie which is mega popular.

harriet
amelie
lilian
ottilie
penelipe
grace
alice

I like Evelyn but as others have said tge world really can do without anymore Evies, especially as it’s the name of Peppa Pigs sister.

I think it's lovely OP and wouldn't necessarily be put off by popularity. It's more important you love it because you and DD need to live with it.

I'm in central belt Scotland and it seems it's far less popular here than in E&W as only 37 were registered in Scotland last year. I had it on my shortlist for soon to arrive baby girl but DH not a fan. We also like Eva which is always said to be far too common on here but, again, seems far less popular in Scotland with only 68 registered last year.

As for pronunciation, I think it depends where you are. I would expect it to be pronounced Ev-eh-lyn but wouldn't pick it if it had some of the other pronunciations mentioned in this thread.

James Joyce’s broken drudge. Dutiful daughter, sister who survives on memories. So beaten down she panics, freezes and refuses as she takes her last chance at elopement (or is she being abducted into prostitution?).
Not for me, sorry.
Pronounced Evv.elin.
AFAIK the male version is EE.vlin.

Yep, of course a name can be uncommon and still have another named it!

My example is Jupiter! We know two. Undoubtedly uncommon but two in the same baby class! I can only guess how few babies were named Jupiter two years ago but I can’t imagine it was many!

Evelyn is beautiful OP.

Pronounced Evv.elin.
AFAIK the male version is EE.vlin.

This is what I was also told recently by the mother of a toddler Evelyn when I asked her which pronunciation to use. The mum is a super-smart barrister (and so is the dad) and I trust that she did her research first.

No, I think of it as a boys name.
Eve and Evie are all a bit over used.