Lavinia

Latin, from ancient place name Lavinium

Lavinia Origin and Meaning

The name Lavinia is a girl's name of Latin origin.

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.

Lavinia Rank in US Top 1000

# 926 in the US

Lavinia Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 147 on Nameberry

Lavinia Popularity

• 147 Nameberry 2024
• 754 England 2021

20 Names Similar to Lavinia

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Lavinia.

• Minerva
• Isadora
• Cecily
• Octavia
• Eulalia
• Rosalind
• Cordelia
• Cressida
• Georgiana
• Guinevere
• Sybil
• Ariadne
• Hermione
• Isolde
• Cosima
• Edith
• Jessamine
• Cecilia
• Winifred
• Antonia

Famous People Named Lavinia

• 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"