Meaning: Its source is a Latin expression meaning "Victory."

Languages: This girl's name is used in English, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.

Nicknames: Toree, Torei, Torey, Tori, Toria, Torie, Torrey, Torri, Torria, Torrie, Tory, Torya, Torye, Vicke, Vickey, Vicki, Vickie, Vickki, Vicky, Viki, Vikie, Vikki, Viky, Vyckee, Toyka, Tor, Vics and Vix

Compound Forms: Torilyn, Torilynn, Torrilyn and Vickilyn

Alternative Spellings: Vicktoria and Vyctoria

Variant Forms: Victorina and Vikiana

Masculine Forms: Victor

Non-English Forms: Viktoria, Vitoria, Vittoria, Viktorija, Wiktoria, Victoriya and Vickan

Popularity: The name Victoria ranked 20th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of 2000-2003 Social Security Administration statistics, 116th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census and 21st in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1994 US Census.

This name was popular earlier in the 20th century, then fell off in usage, but has begun making a comeback in recent years.

Narrative: Victoria was a goddess who smiled on the ancient Roman people for many centuries. Early Christians adopted the name, perhaps in reference to St. Paul's praise of ''God, which giveth us the victory.''

Seventeenth-century Puritans set the trend of using Victoria's English translation, Victory, as the preferred form of the name. Then in 1837 a German princess was crowned Victoria, Queen of the British. Reigning until 1901, she dominated and named the 19th century, creating an archetype of formality and moral prudishness summed up in a single word -- Victorian.

Perhaps because of their awe for this dominating queen, English speakers did not use this name widely until the mid-20th century. At that time, Victoria was escorted up the popularity lists by her male counterpart, Victor.