Virginia comes from the Roman family name Verginius and has long been read through the Latin virgo as "maiden" or "virginal". The state was named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and Virginia Dare, born in 1587, was the first English child born in the Americas; the writer Virginia Woolf is its most famous modern bearer. Virginia was number 366 in 2000 and has held a steady place in the 500s for the past decade, ranking number 526 in 2025.