Shem Tov Boy's nameOrigin: HebrewIn Israel: rising fast
LaviIn Hebrew: לביא · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel
With vowel points: לָבִיאRomanization: laví
Lavi (Hebrew: לביא) is a boy's name of Hebrew origin. 15,304 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,518 boys and ranked #4. Its peak year was 2024, with 1,523 babies.
- People in Israel
- 15,304
- born 1949–2024
- Babies in 2024
- 1,518
- rank #4
- Peak year
- 2024
- 1,523 babies
- USA
- —
- not in the SSA list
Writing and saying Lavi
In Hebrew letters the name is לביא, read right to left. Lavi is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "laví" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).
Meaning and origin
- a male given name, equivalent to English Leo
- a surname
From Proto-Semitic *labiʔ- (“lion”).
Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.
Lavi by year in Israel
How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).
per 10,000 babies of the same sex
Related Israeli names
Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.
Questions about Lavi
How do you write Lavi in Hebrew?
Lavi is written לביא in Hebrew (with vowel points: לָבִיא). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "laví".
How many people in Israel are named Lavi?
15,304 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name לביא: 70 women and 15,234 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.
Is Lavi a boy's or a girl's name?
In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 99.5% of the people named לביא are men.
What does the name Lavi mean?
English Wiktionary describes it as: "a male given name, equivalent to English Leo" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *labiʔ- (“lion”).
Sources
Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.