Octavia comes from the Latin octavus, meaning "eighth." Originally given to the eighth child of a Roman family, it became a Roman cognomen and then a given name. Octavia Minor (69-11 BCE), sister of Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus), gave the name particular dignity.
Octavia has been rising rapidly in the 2010s. The author Octavia Butler (1947-2006), the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, brought the name into contemporary literary memory. Today it sits in the U.S. top 350.
Octavia reduces to five — the number of curiosity and quiet ambition.