Eva said AY-vah makes no sense and you'd be better off spelling it Ava.
It does make sense in any language other than English, and my inspirations
Hedy Lemarr (whose middle name was
Eva) and
Eva Perón (aka
Evita), both pronounced them 'AY-vah'. I hate the pronunciation 'EE-vah' as I think it's hideously ugly. Pretentious? Probably, but 1) I live in an area with a large immigrant population, most, if not all, of whose native language pronounce it as 'AY-vah', 2) I plan on living abroad after obtaining my Master's, and 3) In the eastern part of the state where my parents' families hail, an overwhelming majority of the people pronounce it 'AY-vah'.
Irene is nice but you'd never get it said ee-RAY-nah.
My grandaunt's name is pronounced that way and though she has to correct people, once they learn how to say her name, they're fine. Honestly, I don't see why the pronunciation issue for
Irene would be any different than that of other names, kre8iv atrocities and decent names alike.
My hypothetical
Irene and someone else's hypothetical
Nevaeh will have something to bond over in school. :)