Pia - Name Meaning and Popularity -

Meaning of Pia

Pia is the Latin feminine of Pius—literally “pious” or “devout”—and migrated through Catholic Europe into everyday Italian and German use, where it is pronounced PEE-uh. Compact to the point of austerity, the name has long appealed to parents who prefer virtue over ornamentation and who regard an extra syllable as a needless luxury. In the United States it has never cracked the popularity ceiling, yet it shows remarkable stamina: federal records list five newborn Pias in 1936, and nearly a century later the 2024 count is 158, good for rank 792. Cultural references surface at regular intervals—actress-singer Pia Zadora, U.S. soccer coach Pia Sundhage, and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach—each keeping the name quietly on the radar without tipping it into fad territory. The result is a trim, internationally legible choice that signals calm conviction rather than crowd-pleasing theatrics.