Just how popular is the name.....

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-28-2005
Just how popular is the name.....
6
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 1:58pm

I have really liked the name Livia for many years. Not as big a fan of Olivia. I think the name Livia ia very pretty and I can see myself calling my little girl Livy at times as well, even though I am not normally a nickname kind of person. My question is this: how popular/trendy is the name Olivia?

Listen to me ramble.....I don't even know if we will have a girl. ANd after having 3 boys I'd say our chances are pretty slim!! And I know, how can I sit here and ask about how popular/trendy is Olivia when our third boy is Joshua--one of the most popular boys names out there! (But I just love it!)

Thanks for any thoughts!

Theresa
Mom to: Brendan, Aaron, & Joshua

Oh--Livia (for me anyway) comes from Roman history. (She was wife to Augustus.)

Avatar for dr_kae
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 2:37pm
Olivia is pretty popular these days...I forget the exact stats, but I'm pretty sure it broke the top ten in the Social Security's count for last year. Still, it IS a seperate name from Livia--Olivia derives from olive trees and olive oil and Livia has to do with the color blue, though people may not realize that. On a seperate note, popular and trendy are two different things. Olivia is having a resurgence in popularity, but it's a classic name, not what some baby name books call a "trendy suspender"--it's not just some created thing out of nowhere, or something with an altered spelling (nor is Livia--like you point out, it's got a long history.) So--yeah, it's popular, but no, it's not trendy. And it's definitely one of those names that I look at and say "I can see why it's popular." It's lovely. Gracious, strong and feminine--a triple-threat name.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-15-2007
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 4:00pm
I haven't heard many baby girls named Livia lately -- but that's a good thing! It's such a beautiful beautiful name and if it were overly popular it may lose its appeal. Good choice!!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-14-2003
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 4:42pm
I don't know the popularity of Olivia but I agree w/ you about Livia. I 1st heard of it in a book I was reading to my son a couple years ago (a children's book about the fall of Pompei!) & thought, immediately, that it was so beautiful. And I'm not a fan of Olivia! But Livia really appeals to me.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2005
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 5:37pm

Like a pp mentioned, there's a big difference between popular and trendy (Jason pointed this out when we were naming Abigail ). Both Joshua and Olivia fall into the popular classic, rather than trendy, category. Livia even more so, since it's NOT popular (though obviously similar to a name that is).


If it helps, it seemed nearly everyone having girls in our birthing class


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-30-2007
Fri, 05-04-2007 - 6:13pm
I have only known one "Livia" ever, and thought it was a beautiful name, then. I think it's enough of a variant that she will stand out from all the Olivias (although I think the name Olivia is very pretty as well).
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2007
Sat, 05-05-2007 - 1:24am

Here's the popularity of Olivia from 1985 to 2004:

1985: 248th most popular.
1986: 215th most popular.
1987: 166th most popular.
1988: 134th most popular.
1989: 123rd most popular.
1990: 74th most popular.
1991: 62nd most popular.
1992: 57th most popular.
1993: 50th most popular.
1994: 50th most popular.
1995: 39th most popular.
1996: 35th most popular.
1997: 27th most popular.
1998: 22nd most popular.
1999: 20th most popular.
2000: 16th most popular.
2001: 11th most popular.
2002: 10th most popular.
2003: 5th most popular.
2004: 4th most popular.

Due to the gradual rate at which the name Olivia has risen, it may not seem nearly as trendy (or dated, in a decade or two) as other very popular names which leapt from obscurity into extreme popularity quite suddenly in the last couple of years.

Livia is a much, much less common name, but it still sounds popular by association (to me at least). It's a lovely name though, and Olivia, which seems to be concentrated in particular regions, may not be common in your area.