Vivian
About Vivian
Deriving from the Roman cognomen Vivianus, Vivian was originally a masculine name, with Vivien being a feminine soundalike coined by Alfred Lord Tennyson for the Lady of the Lake in his famous poetic adaptation of the legend of King Arthur. It has since become a much more popular choice for girls in the US, but retains a refined British charm which sees it cropping up occasionally for boys in the Telegraph birth announcements.
Fun fact: Vivian is the middle name of Daniel Cleaver, Hugh Grant's rakish character in the Bridget Jones movies.
Pronounced VIV-ee-un.
As of October 2026, Vivian ranked #13778 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #472 in 1898.
Editor: Sophie Kihm
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | 0 |
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Vivian.
- Obadiah
- Tybalt
- Alphonse
- Ishmael
- Armand
- Horace
- Beauregard
- Zebedee
- Ludwig
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- Ionela
- Claudius
- Irvine
- Mortimer
- Balthasar
- Gale
- Digory
- Raoul
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- Franz
Vivian on lists
Famous Vivians
- Vivian Patrick Campbell
Northern Irish guitarist and co,vocalist of rock bands Def Leppard, Last In Line and Riverdogs
- Vivian Crawford
English cricketer
- Vivian Woodward
English footballer
- Vivian Hunter Galbraith
English historian and professor at Oxford
- Vivian Bose
Judge of the Supreme Court of India
- Vivian Van Damm
English Impresario of the Windmill Theatre
- Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons
South African herpetologist
- Vivian Ellis
English musical comedy composer
- Vivian Fuchs
English explorer
- Vivian H. H. Green
Rector of Lincoln College and Oxford
- Vivian Blake
Jamaican politician and Chief Justice of the Bahamas
- Vivian Naylor
Leyland, British aristocrat and banker
- Vivian Bendall
English Conservative politician
- Vivian Cook
English linguist and Professor at Newcastle University
- Vivian Jackson
Jamaican reggae musician
- Vivian de Buffrénil
French histologist and palaeobiologist
- Vivian Richards
Antiguan cricketer and sports commentator
- Vivian Imerman
South African businessman and former CEO of Del Monte
- Vivian Anderson
English football coach and defender
- Vivian Harris
Guyanese boxer
Vivian in pop culture
- Vivian Smith
Smythe,Smith, character from the Monty Python sketch "Upper Class Twit of the Year"
- Daniel Vivian Cleaver
character from book/film Bridget Jones Diary
Variations & nicknames
- VivianoSpanish