Latinate form of Evelyn; popularized by Fanny Burney's 1778 novel 'Evelina.'
Evelina is a Latinate form of Aveline, a medieval name brought to Britain by the Normans and ultimately tied to an older Germanic naming tradition. Over time, Evelina also came to be heard alongside Evelyn and even Eve, so it lives at a crossroads of several name families: medieval French, Germanic, and biblical by association. That is one reason it feels so refined.
The ending gives it an Italianate or Romantic elegance, while the opening keeps it close to familiar names like Eve, Eva, and Evelyn. Its most important literary bearer is Frances Burney's heroine in Evelina, the celebrated 1778 novel that helped revive the form for English readers. That novel gave the name a distinctly literary polish, linking it to sensibility, wit, and a young woman's entrance into society.
Since then Evelina has appeared across Europe in various languages, especially in eastern and northern Europe, where it has remained more consistently at home than it has in English-speaking countries. In modern usage it is often perceived as a graceful alternative to the more common Evelyn: similarly soft and classic, but rarer and more overtly romantic. Evelina's history shows how a name can be both ancient in its structure and newly luminous in each age that rediscovers it.