Named after Livonia Avenue, which recalls Livonia, a historic region on the Baltic.
When the avenue was laid out in the town of New Lots in the late 19th century, it was named after the Linningtons, a local farming family; an 1874 map shows Linnington Avenue. It was later renamed after Livonia, which lies in what is now Latvia and Estonia. NYC Parks says the region was named by 12th-century Germans after the Liv people.