Pius

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Pius is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Hindi given name6.3K records spelled Pius21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, United States

  Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Urdu

  Also written Piyash, Piash, Piyas, পিয়াস, Pīyas

62 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Pius is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, männl. Vom. lateinischen Ursprungs (lat. pius, -ö, -um »fromm, rechtschaffen, gottesfürchtig«).

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In English, name of 12 popes

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In Swedish, Se Pia.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, from Latin pius 'pious, devout'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In Latin, a male given name, particularly as a regnal name of several popes of the Catholic Church

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 69 years between 1920–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Pius IIb. 1405ITpope of the Catholic Church from 1458 to 1464 (1405–1464)
• Pius IIIb. 1439ITpope of the Catholic Church from 22 September to 18 October 1503
• Pius IVb. 1499ITpope of the Catholic Church from 1559 to 1565
• Pius Vb. 1504IT16th‑century Italian pope and Catholic saint, leading Counter‑Reformation reformer
• Pius VIb. 1717ITPope of the Catholic Church from 1775 to 1799
• Pius VIIb. 1742IThead of the Catholic Church, ruler of the Papal States from 1800 to 1823 (1742–1823)
• Pius IXb. 1792ITPope of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878
• Henryk Sienkiewiczb. 1846PLnot in their usual namePolish writer, novelist, journalist, philanthropist and Nobel Prize laureate (1846–1916)
• Pius XIb. 1857VApope of the Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939
• Pius XIIb. 1876ITpope of the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 280 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Pius?

We estimate roughly 1.7 thousand people bear Pius (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Pius have the most bearers?

Pius is most frequently recorded in Kenya, where it is most often spelled pius.

How common is Pius compared with other names?

In Kenya, Pius is the 266th most common given name of 51,773 given names recorded there.

Is Pius a male or female name?

Pius is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Pius mean?

Recorded meaning: Pious, devout; the name of several popes