It's possible to read too much into the title of the story. Joyce is much more concerned with what Eveline as a character represents rather than the significance of her name. That said, it is unlikely in the extreme that a man who savored the origins of names and words as much as Joyce will have been unaware that Eveline ultimately comes from the Hebrew word meaning life.

Without wishing to stretch the point too far, one could argue that Eveline's name is significant as the title of the story as it concerns a decision that will change the protagonist's life forever. As we've already seen, Eveline comes from the Hebrew word for life and so it's somewhat appropriate that a story that revolves around a major turning point in one woman's life should bear that name.

In the story's climactic scene, as she stands rooted to the spot at the quayside while her lover Frank takes off for a new life in Buenos Aires, Eveline has made a fateful decision in terms of her life's future direction. In opting to stay in Ireland instead of taking the plunge and joining Frank in Argentina, Eveline has changed the course of what remains of her life.

While one can look towards the symbolic meaning of the name "Eveline," on a less abstract level, one should also keep in mind that Eveline is a young woman's name. Indeed, the story of "Eveline" isn't really very much plot-focused at all: it's a psychological study of a young woman as she struggles between two paths she might follow, which will proceed to shape the rest of her life. Eveline can remain in Ireland, continuing a life that is miserable but familiar, or take a risk, get married and embark into the unknown. It's her psychological struggle, as she's torn between these two potential futures, that shapes this short story.

With this in mind, on a purely literal level, the decision to name this story "Eveline" reflects this story's intense focus on the character of Eveline herself, and the way that it aims to depict (in great detail) a psychological and literary portrait of a young woman, as she exists within a singular moment in time.

The name Eveline means "little, or small, Eve" which is Hebrew for "life." Of course, the connotations associated with the name Eve are those of the first woman who tempted her mate Adam with the apple from the serpert, an act which expelled them from the Garden of Eden.

On the other hand, the meaning of "life" and the diminutive suffix of -lyn, or -line suggest that Eveline lives a small life, which certainly seems to be her situation as she sits in the darkening window, feeling "tired." In fact, the concept of paralysis drives the narrative of "Eveline." For, as Eveline leans her head against the curtains of "dusty cretonne," she dwells on her life, limited by the violence of her father, her obligations to her brothers, and the demeaning treatment of Miss Gavan. Indeed, she seems prohibited from attaining happiness and respect, trapped in a stultifying life of obligations.

It was hard work--a hard life--but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life.

Eveline's paralysis leads her to find some sense of security in her stifling life because she fears the unknown. Thus, when "[A] bell clanged upon her heart, and her sailor Frank seizes her hand, Eveline fears the future--"he would drown her"--and she refuses to move. She forsakes escape, life and love, instead choosing the past, her obligations, and death-in-life, not unlike the first Eve who lost much after her fateful decision in the Garden of Eden.