Lavinia

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Girl · Latin

Lavinia

Say it: luh-VIN-ee-uh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Name of the legendary wife of Aeneas, linked to the town Lavinium; its origin is unknown.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

Known from Virgil's Aeneid; used in Renaissance Italy, 19th-century England, and modern Romania.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1880s

In the United States

010203018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1886per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 5,251 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1886, about 1 in 4,100 girls
  • 59 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  3. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  4. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  5. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

LatinItalianRomanianEnglishAmerican

The family of the name

ItalianLavinia
RomanianLavinia
SpanishLavinia

Famous bearers

  • Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter
  • Lavinia Dickinson, sister of Emily Dickinson

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
  • Well-known works of literature
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.