Alva (given name)

Alva is a unisex given name. It is used in Sweden and Norway as a feminine form of the name Alf, meaning "elf." It is also a spelling variant of the Biblical masculine name Alvah, meaning "his highness." Alva is a currently popular name in Sweden, where it was ranked among the ten most popular names given to newborn girls in 2012. Notable people with the name include:

Men

 * Alva Adams (governor) (1850–1922), Governor of Colorado
 * Alva B. Adams (1875–1941), U.S. Senator from Colorado, son of the governor
 * Alva Baptiste, Saint Lucian politician
 * Alva Ted Bonda (1917–2005), president and part-owner of the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team
 * Alva Bradley (1884–1953), American businessman and baseball executive
 * Alva M. Cummins (1869–1946), American lawyer
 * Alva Duer (1904–1987), American college basketball coach
 * Alva R. Fitch (1907–1989), United States Army lieutenant general
 * Alva Clark Forney (1871–1956), Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota (1925–1927)
 * Alva Garey (1883–1971), American politician
 * Alva L. Hager (1850–1923), three-term U.S. Representative from Iowa
 * Alva Johnston (1888–1950), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and biographer
 * Alva Kelley (1918–1999), American collegiate football player and coach
 * Alva Liles (1956–1998), American football player
 * Alva M. Lumpkin (1886–1941), U.S. Senator from South Carolina for less than a month
 * Alva Hugh Maddox (1930–2020), a justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 1969 to 2001
 * Alva Noë (born 1964), American philosopher and cognitive scientist
 * Alva Allie Paine (1919–2008), American basketball player
 * Alva Ross (1928–2004), Jamaican politician

Women

 * Alva, a character in the Adventure Time miniseries "Islands"
 * Alva Belmont (1853–1933), American socialite and suffragette
 * Alva Challis (1930 – 2010), Welsh-born New Zealand geologist
 * Alva Colquhoun (born 1942), Australian swimmer
 * Alva C. Ellisor (1892–1964), American geologist, one of the first female stratigraphers in North America
 * Alva Forsius (1866–1935), Finnish midwife, social worker and a founding member of the Finnish Salvation Army
 * Alva Myrdal (1902–1986), Swedish Nobel Peace Prize winner