Is Evelyn pronounced variously based on gender?

Question

When I first read Evelyn Waugh's books decades ago, I assumed the author was female. I subsequently found out Evelyn can also be a man's name in England. But today I found out that Evelyn Waugh's first wife was also named Evelyn. What I'd like to know is, were both of their names pronounced the same — with a long E for the first syllable ("E-vil-un"), or is the female Evelyn pronounced in England the same way Americans say it ("EV-uh-len")?

Answer 1

It often has to do with if it's a man's name or a woman's name, either in British English or American English. But proper names can be pronounced any way you want. Ever. Conventions change. The origins vary.

From Wikipedia:

The name originally was used as a surname, which derived from Aveline, a feminine Norman French diminutive of the name Ava.[2] Ava itself is a hypocoristic Germanic name, of uncertain origin.[3]

Evelyn is also sometimes used as an Anglicisation of the Irish Aibhilín or Éibhleann.[4] Aibhilín (variant Eibhlín) is itself derived from the Norman French Aveline. Éibhleann (variant Éibhliu1), on the other hand, is said to be derived from the Old Irish óiph ("beauty"[5]).

Those have a long /i/, counterintuitive to modern Eve vs Ève.

Pronunciation /ˈɛvʌlɪn/, /ˈiːvlɪn/

The man's first name is more popular in BrE with a TREE vowel. I wondered about this in chat a while back (pending review from the answer I got there) when reading Decline and Fall again.

The writer, a man, pronounced his name Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (/ˈiːvlɪn ˈsɪndʒən ˈwɔː/. Men of this first name tend to pronounce their own first names with a TREE vowel. Women with it tend to pronounce their own first names with an EGG vowel. Last names are usually the man's name like the household brand items of Crabtree and Evelyn, which is from New England and now pronounced either way, but more often with a long /i/.