Livia
Still rare enough that most Poles have never met one, though it's on its way back: more girls got the name last year than in years past. The root is Latin, from *lividus*, "bluish" and by extension "envious".
Livia Pronunciation
What Livia means
Where Livia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Livia comes from Latin, from the Roman family name Livius. The gens Livia was one of the old republican clans, and the name marked a person as belonging to it. The best known bearer is Livia Drusilla, wife of the emperor Augustus, whose political weight shaped Rome for decades. Grammarians later tied the name to the adjective lividus, meaning bluish or envious, the same root that gives English livid.
That darker gloss, envy and a bruised blue, sits oddly on a name now given freely to daughters. In Polish the variant is Liwia, spelled with a w, and it appears on class registers beside the older Latin form. A teacher reading roll call may meet both spellings in one room.
So the name holds two stories. One is lineage, a claim to the house of the Livii. The other is colour, the pale blue that Latin also read as envy. Today the sound remains and the older sense of lividus rests, while the spelling Liwia settles it firmly in Polish.
How many people are named Livia
1 in 12380 women in Poland is named Livia. 1,821 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #735 among female names.
Livia's popularity over time
92 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #256 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2003.
Where Livia is most popular
Livia is most popular in Opole, 82% above the national average (26 girls born 2019–2025), followed by West Pomeranian (+76%) and Lubusz (+49%). It is least common in Masovian and Lesser Poland, 44% and 35% below average respectively.
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Opole26 girls born+82%
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West Pomeranian46 girls born+76%
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Lubusz23 girls born+49%
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Lower Silesian69 girls born+42%
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Pomeranian63 girls born+38%
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Silesian93 girls born+32%
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Greater Poland72 girls born+8%
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Warmian-Masurian23 girls born+3%
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Łódź37 girls born−6%
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Świętokrzyskie16 girls born−7%
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Lublin29 girls born−9%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian27 girls born−20%
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Podlaskie14 girls born−31%
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Subcarpathian25 girls born−33%
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Lesser Poland46 girls born−35%
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Masovian61 girls born−44%
Livia as a middle name
Livia is a first name for 1,821 women in Poland and a middle name for another 222, an 89/11 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 454th, between Cecilia (222) and Modesta (220).
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#452 Clara224
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#453 Cecilia222
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#454 Livia222
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#455 Modesta220
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#456 Szarlota220