The name Virginia ranked 379th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of 2000-2003 Social Security Administration statistics and 35th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census.
This name is highly rated in the 1990 U.S. Census popularity survey of all ages, but after 1960 does not appear in the state data listing the most popular baby names.
This name was first spelled Verginia, and was the feminine form of an ancient Roman clan name, Verginius. Over time its spelling changed due to its association with the Latin term virgo, meaning ''maiden.'' This meaning has driven the use of the name ever since.
In 1587, this was the name given the first baby born to English colonists in the New World, Virginia Dare. Both the baby and her home colony were named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England.
The state of Virginia still proudly bears this name. Virginia Dare's fate was different. She and the rest of the colonists on Roanoke Island mysteriously disappeared within three years of her birth, creating the legend of The Lost Colony which has been reinacted in a grand pageant every summer since 1937.