Lavinia
About Lavinia
Lavinia is a charmingly prim and proper Victorian-sounding name which actually dates back to classical mythology, where it was the name of the wife of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who was considered the mother of the Roman people.
Later literary bearers include the protagonist's daughter in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (which has the line "She is Lavinia, therefore must be lov'd"), the heroine of G.B. Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, and characters in David Copperfield, Henry James' Washington Square, and the contemporary The Hunger Games and Downton Abbey--and Lavinia was also used by Thackeray, T. S. Eliot, and by Ursula Le Guin for an eponymous novel.
Trivia tidbit: Lavinia was Ava Gardner's middle name.
With its vintage nickname Vinnie, Lavinia might well appeal to parents who favor lavender-tinged names like Amelia and Matilda and Maude.
Pronounced luh-VIN-yuh.
As of October 2026, Lavinia ranked #2290 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #360 in 1880, Nameberry popularity #375.
Editor's take: The name Lavinia is a girl's name of Latin origin.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #3,100 | 54 | 30.2 |
| 2015 | #2,793 | 63 | 35.3 |
| 2016 | #2,453 | 75 | 42.3 |
| 2017 | #2,624 | 67 | 38.8 |
| 2018 | #2,768 | 62 | 36.4 |
| 2019 | #2,641 | 66 | 39.3 |
| 2020 | #2,765 | 60 | 37.1 |
| 2021 | #2,543 | 69 | 42.1 |
| 2022 | #2,151 | 89 | 54.3 |
| 2023 | #2,346 | 78 | 48.6 |
| 2024 | #2,139 | 89 | 54.9 |
| 2025 | #2,290 | 80 | 49.8 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Lavinia.
- Rowena
- Magdalena
- Theodosia
- Allegra
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- Isadora
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- Aibileen
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Lavinia on lists
Famous Lavinias
- Lavinia Norcross "Vinnie" Dickinson
sister and compiler of poet Emily Dickinson
- Lavinia Lloyd Dock
American pioneering nurse and suffragist
- Lavinia Margaret Engle
American suffragist
- Lavinia Fontana
Italian Renaissance painter
- Lavinia Ellen "Vinnie" Ream
American sculptor
- Lavinia Corina Milosovici
Romanian Olympic gymnast
- Lavinia Agache
Romanian Olympic gymnast
- Lavinia Fenton
English stage actress
- Lavinia Greenlaw
English poet and novelist
- Lavinia Meijer
Dutch harpist
- Lavinia Padarath
Fijian politician
- (Marcela) Lavinia Șandru
Romanian politician
- Lavinia Warner
British TV writer and producer
- Lavínia Gutmann Vlasak
Brazilian actress and model
- Lavinia Tananta
Indonesian tennis player
- (Mercy) Lavinia Warren
American dwarf performer; wife of General Tom Thumb
- Lavinia Mary Fitzalan
Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, British courtier
- Lavinia Stunt (b.2013)
daughter of British/Croatian heiress Petra Ecclestone and James Stunt
- Lavinia
Marie, Princess of Yugoslavia
- Lavinia Fisher
first female serial killer in the United States
Lavinia in pop culture
- Lavinia
wife of Aeneas in Roman mythology
- Lavinia Andronicus
maimed daughter of Titus in Shakespeare's tragedy 'Titus Andronicus'
- Lavinia Herbert
character in F.H. Burnett's 'A Little Princess"
- Lavinia Catherine Swire
character on TV's 'Downton Abbey'
- Lavinia Crochet
character on TV's "The Worst Witch'
- Lavinia
character in 'The Hunger Games' series
- Lavinia Milliken (nee Kicklebury)
wife of Horace Milliken in 'The Kickleburys on the Rhine' (1850) by W. M. Thackeray
- Lavinia Wilfer
Bella's younger sister in 'Our Mutual Friend' (1865) by Charles Dickens
- Lavinia Penniman
Dr. Sloper's widowed sister and housekeeper in 'Washington Square' (1880) by Henry James
- Lavinia Fitzroy
wife to Asa Timberlake in Ellen Glasgow's 'In This Our Life' (1942)
- Lavinia
wife of Edward Chamberlyne in T. S. Eliot's play 'The Cocktail Party' (1950)
- Lavinia "Livy" Waterhouse
character in Tracy Chevlair's "Falling Angels"
- Lavinia Whateley
character in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror"
- Lavinia Arguelles
character on Filipino TV's "Bituing Walang Ningning"
- Lavinia Mannon
character in Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra"
- Lavinia Pernilla Kippernook
six,year old princess in the children's TV series "Jane and the Dragon"
- Lavinia Hall
character in "The Sisterhood of Night"
- Lavinia Putney
character in season 2 of the TV series "Penny Dreadful"