Ava has two competing origins. The Latin theory derives it from avis (bird), suggesting flight and lightness.
Ava was rare for most of the twentieth century until Hollywood actress Ava Gardner (1922–1990) brought it into mainstream use. It re-emerged dramatically in the 2000s — by 2010 it was in the U.S. top 5 girl names.
Ava does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ava reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.