And the man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all life.
וַיִּקְרָא הָאָדָם שֵׁם אִשְׁתּוֹ חַוָּה כִּי הִוא הָיְתָה אֵם כָּל חָי
Breisheit 3:20
The Kli Yakar asks, why did he call her a name now after the sin of tree of knowledge, and that he was supposed to have called her Chaya?
Before the sin, she was called Chaya, as the Mother of all Life (חיה). After the sin, she was known as Chava (חוה), since she brought death into the world. Chava comes from the term 'chaviya' (חויא), bears resemblance to an Aramaic word for "snake".
Thus this verse comes to explain why she wasn't literally called 'snake', since prior to the sin she was known as Chaya - the mother of life. This was to still keep a reference to the previous name, and not replace it completely.
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