Famous bearers include the Renaissance painter Antonio Pisanello (c. 1395-1455) and the Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). It is also the name of the main character in The Merchant of Venice (1596) by William Shakespeare.
This is also an alternate transcription of Russian Ева (see Yeva).
Despite this potentially negative association, the name was occasionally used by Christians during the Middle Ages. In the English-speaking world both Eve and the Latin form Eva were revived in the 19th century, with the latter being more common.
Famous bearers include the German intellectual Max Weber (1864-1920) and the German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947). This name is also borne by the title character in the Mad Max series of movies, starting 1979.
In England, it began to be used as a given name after the Protestant Reformation. It was moderately common in the 19th century. It began to rise in popularity again in the late 1980s, probably helped along by characters on the American television shows Friends (1994-2004) and Charmed (1998-2006). It is currently much more common in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand than the United States.
A moon of Saturn bears this name, in honour of the Titan.