The area where Eva Island lies was named
Hvidtenland (White Land) by
Fridtjof Nansen who reached Eva Island's coast on August 5, 1895, during his polar expedition with
Hjalmar Johansen which ended at Franz Josef Land. In his map he drew two islands and he named the largest one to the east Eva Island after his wife
Eva Nansen (died in 1907). The "island" to the west, which Nansen reached two days later, was named "Liv Island". This is the point of the Franz Josef Archipelago that Russian navigator
Valerian Albanov of the doomed
Brusilov expedition was trying to reach when he left the
Svyataya Anna with part of the crew. Albanov, however, ended up far to the southwest in
Alexandra Land. ==Geography==