Livia
Feminine · “By the most-cited reading”
Livia was a Roman family name long before it belonged to any one girl: the gens Livia of the Republic, and then Livia Drusilla, wife of the emperor Augustus and mother of Tiberius. Two short syllables, or three, depending on which country you say it in — and it has been said somewhere continuously ever since Rome. In American records it is familiar without ever having been crowded.
How old is the name Livia?
Livia first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Livia alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 9,600 people named Livia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Livia most popular?
Livia peaked in 2014, reaching #666 nationally. Today it ranks #819, 153 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Livia appears on these lists:
- France's favorites still rare in America
- Canadian favorites the US overlooks
- Latin American and Caribbean names
- Ancient Roman names in modern use
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From Livius to Livia
The story of Livia
Livia is the feminine of Livius, the name of a Roman clan attested well back into the Republic. Its best-known bearer, Livia Drusilla, was the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius, which fixed the name in the historical record for good. It never went out of use in Italy, and it settled independently into Romanian, Hungarian and Portuguese, which is why it charts today in several countries at once. Worth knowing: Livia is not a clipped Olivia. Olivia is a much later name, popularized in English by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and built on Latin oliva, 'olive' — the two only look like relatives.
Meaningscholars disagree
By the most-cited reading, 'bluish' — but the Roman family name behind it is not fully explained
One line derives Livius, the Roman clan name, from Latin lividus, 'bluish, leaden' (the root of English 'livid'). Another holds that Livius, like many old Roman gens names, came in from Etruscan and cannot be translated at all. Both readings are taken seriously; neither has won.
How the name formed
- Livius
- Livia
- Lívia
Related forms: Livia · Livia · Lívia · Lívia · Liwia · Livia
Pronouncing Livia
LIV-ee-uh
Two pronunciations are both correct and both in use: LIV-ee-uh in English, and LEE-vee-ah in Italian, Romanian and Latin. Expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Livia
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1906
- Most girls named
- 2018430 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #666reached in 2014
- Change vs 2023
- −0.6%332 in 2025, from 334
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Livia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Livia in Italian — same name
- Livia in Romanian — same name
- Lívia in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Lívia in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Liwia in Polish — spelling variant
- Livia in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from INSEE, Statistics Canada. Sources
Livias among us
people named Livia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,841 born in 2025 was named Livia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lissette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Livia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lissette climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lissette's path sketches the road Livia is walking now.
Livia sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Livia is headed
Livia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Livia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Livia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An unbroken written record going back to Republican Rome — few names can be traced that far without a gap.
- Liv and Livvy are ready-made short forms, already in wide use and needing no explanation.
- Six letters, all pronounced, no silent anything: readable at first sight in English.
- Works across languages with almost no change — Italian, Romanian, Portuguese and Hungarian all have it, and it charts in France and Canada.
- Olivia is one of the most-given girls' names in the English-speaking world, so Livia will regularly be heard as Olivia, written as Olivia, and assumed to be a nickname for it. Correcting that becomes routine.
- The English and Italian pronunciations differ enough to matter — LIV-ee-uh versus LEE-vee-ah — and a child may end up answering to both.
- In Robert Graves's I, Claudius and the BBC adaptation, Livia Drusilla is drawn as a cold dynastic schemer. It is a literary portrait rather than settled history, but readers of a certain bookshelf will think of it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Livia to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Livia
Feminine · #819 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Livias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,600 people named Livia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Livia in 2025?
- Livia ranks #819 among US girl names in 2025, with 332 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Livia?
- About 1 in every 4,841 US girls born in 2025 was named Livia — 332 in all.
- Will my child share the name Livia with classmates?
- Livia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Livia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Julietta#819 · Nola#821 · Romi#817 · Aura#817 · Keyla#821 · Jenesis#816 · Promise#823 · Aliya#823
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Livia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Livia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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