Vivian is a given name, originally a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine Vivianus and feminine Viviana, which survived into modern use because it is the name of two early Christian female martyrs as well as of a male saint and bishop.
History and variants
The Latin name Vivianus is recorded from the 1st century. It is ultimately related to the adjective vivus "alive", but it is formed from the compound form vivi- and the adjectival -ānus suffix used to form cognomina.
The latinate given name Vivianus was of limited popularity in the medieval period in reference to Saint Vivianus, a 5th-century bishop of Saintes; the feminine name was that of Saint Viviana (Bibiana), a 4th-century martyr whose veneration in Rome is ascertained for the 5th century.
In Arthurian legend, "Viviane" is one of the names of the Lady of the Lake.
The name was brought to England with the Norman invasion, and is occasionally recorded in England in the 12th and 13th centuries. The masculine given name appears with greater frequency in the early modern period. The spelling Vivian was historically used only as a masculine name, but in the 19th century was also given to girls and was a unisex name until the early part of the 20th century; since the mid 20th century, it has been almost exclusively given as a feminine name in the United States. Use of Vivian as a feminine name in the US peaked in popularity in 1920 at rank 64, but declined in the second half of the 20th century, falling below rank 500 in the 1980s. Its popularity has again picked up somewhat since the 1990s, as of 2012 having attained rank 140.
Variants of the feminine name include Viviana, Viviane, Vivienne. The French feminine spelling Vivienne in the United States has peaked sharply in recent years from below rank 1,000 (no statistical record) to rank 322 in the period 2009–2012. The Italian or Latin form Viviana has enjoyed some popularity since the 1990s, reaching rank 322 in 2000. The spelling Vivien is the French masculine form, but in English speaking countries it has long been used as a feminine form, due to its appearance as the name of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake in Tennyson's Idylls of the King of 1859. For the masculine name, the variant Vyvyan has sometimes been used, based on the Cornish surname itself derived from the given name. The intermediary form Vyvian is also occasionally found.
The Gaelic name Ninian has sometimes been identified as a corruption of Vivian, but it is now considered more likely derived from Welsh Nynniaw, which is itself of uncertain origin, but likely renders Nennius. Bébinn is an unrelated, genuinely Gaelic name which has on occasion been rendered as Vivian in English.
The given name Vivian was introduced to Norman England in the 11th or 12th century and over time gave rise to a variety of British surnames, including Videan, Vidgen, Vidgeon, Fiddian, Fidgeon, Phythian.
The Vyvyan family has been a prominent family of Cornwall since the 16th century. The Vyvyan baronetcy was created in the Baronetage of England for Sir Richard Vyvyan in 1645. Baron Vivian was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1841.
Vivian has been used as a surname in the United States and Canada since at least the 1830s, presumably derived from the Cornish surname. Notable bearers of the surname include Weston E. Vivian (b. 1924); C. T. Vivian (b. 1924).
Antiquity
Vivianus, a Roman jurist who flourished in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD, often cited by Ulpian and by Paulus.
Flavius Vivianus (fl. 460), politician of the Eastern Roman Empire
Saint Vivianus (d. 490), the first known bishop of Saintes
spelling Vivian
Vivian Crawford (1879-1922), English first-class cricketer
Vivian Woodward (1879-1954), English centre forward footballer
Vivian Hunter Galbraith (1889-1976), English historian and Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford
Vivian Bose (1891-1983), Judge of the Supreme Court of India
Vivian Van Damm (1895-1960), English Impresario of the Windmill Theatre, London
Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons, (1901-1975) South African herpetologist
Vivian Ellis (1904-1996), English musical comedy composer
Sir Vivian Fuchs (1908-1999), English explorer to first cross Antarctica overland
Vivian H. H. Green (1915-2005), Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford and inspiration for John le Carré's character George Smiley
Vivian Blake (1921-2000), Jamaican politician and Chief Justice of the Bahamas
Sir Vivian Naylor-Leyland (1924-1987), British aristocrat and banker
Vivian Bendall (born 1938), English Conservative politician
Vivian Cook (born 1940), English linguist and Professor of Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University
Vivian Jackson (1946–2010), Jamaican reggae musician also known as Yabby You
Vivian de Buffrénil (born 1950), French histologist and palaeobiologist
Vivian ("Viv") Richards (born 1952), Antiguan cricketer and sports commentator
Vivian Imerman, South African businessman and former CEO of Del Monte
Vivian Anderson (born 1956), English football coach and defender
Vivian Blake (1956–2010), Jamaican criminal
Vivian Balakrishnan (born 1961), Singaporean politician (in Chinese, the name is rendered 維文, pinyin wéi-wén)
Vivian Campbell (born 1962), Northern Irish heavy metal guitarist
Vivian Dsena (1988–Present), Madhubala Ek Ishq Ek Junoon Indian Actor
Vivian Harris (born 1978), Guyanese boxer
spelling Vivien
Jean-Baptiste Vivien de Châteaubrun (1686-1775), French dramatist
Vivien Thomas (1910-1985), American surgical technician
Marc-Vivien Foé (1975-2003), Cameroonian footballer
spelling Vyvyan
Vyvyan Holland, born Vyvyan Oscar Beresford Wilde (1886–1967), English author/translator, second son of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd
Lieutenant-General Vyvyan Pope (1891–1941), World War II British Army officer
Captain Sir Vyvyan Holt (1896–1960), British soldier, diplomat, and Oriental scholar
Major-General Vyvyan Evelegh (1898–1958), World War II British army officer
Vyvyan Adams (1900–1951), British Conservative Party politician
Vyvyan Evans, Professor of Linguistics
spelling Vyvian
Vyvian Pike (born 1969), English cricketer
As a pseudonym or nickname
"Vivian" was a nickname given to Chaim Herzog in the 1940s.
Vivian Stanshall, stage name of Victor Anthony Stanshall (1943–1995), English comedic music
Late Antiquity (spelling may differ depending on tradition)
Saint Vibiana (3rd century)
Saint Vivian (4th century)
spelling Vivian
Vivian Bang (born 1983), American actress
Vivian Cheruiyot (born 1983), Kenyan long-distance runner
Vivian Chukwuemeka (born 1975), Nigerian shot putter
Vivian Dandridge (1921–1991), American actress
Vivian Flowers (born c. 1969), American politician
Vivian Green (born 1979), American R&B singer
Vivian "Vivi" Janiss (1911-1988), American actress
Vivian Joseph (born 1948), American figure skater
Vivian Kubrick (born 1960), American-born English filmmaker and composer
Vivian Vance (1909–1979), American actress
Vivian Claire Culp (born 1999), Miss Michigan
spelling Vivien
Vivien Cardone (b. 1993), American actress
Vivien Duffield (b. 1946), British philanthropist
Vivien Leigh, born Vivian Mary Hartley (1913–1967), English Academy Award-winning actress
Vivien Neves (1947-2002), British glamour model
spelling Viviana or Viviane
Viviane ("Vivi") Fernandez (b. 1977), Brazilian model
others at Viviana (disambiguation)
spelling Vivienne
Vivienne (photographer)
Vivienne Boyd (1926–2011), New Zealand politician
Vivienne Chandler (b. 1947), French actress and photographer
Vivienne de Watteville (1900–1957), United Kingdom author
Violet Vivienne ("Vivi") Goonewarden (1916–1996), Sri Lankan politician
Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot (1888-1947), British governess and writer, wife of Nobel-prize winning writer T. S. Eliot
Vivienne Segal (1897–1992) American actress
Vivienne Spence (b. 1965), Jamaican track and field athlete
Vivienne Trumpy, stage name Vivi Gioi (1917–1975), Italian actress
Vivienne Westwood (b. 1941), English fashion designer
spelling Vyvienne
Vyvienne Long, Irish musician
spelling Vyvyan
Vyvyan Lorrayne, South African ballerina
spelling Vyvyane
Vyvyane Loh, Chinese Hui-Shien, Malaysian-American novelist, choreographer, and physician
hypocoristic Vivi (used as given name in Scandinavia)
Vivi-Anne Hultén (1911–2003), Swedish figure skater
Vivi Bach (1939–2013), Danish actress and singer
Vivi Flindt (born 1943), Danish ballerina
Vivi Friedman (1967–2012), Finnish film director
Vivi Krogh (born 1919), Norwegian anti-immigration activist
As a pseudonym or adopted name
Vivian Chow, Chinese 周慧敏 Zhōu Huìmǐn (born 1967), Hong Kong singer and actress
Vivian Hsu, Chinese 徐若瑄 Xú Ruòx (born 1975), Taiwanese singer, actress and model
Vivian Schmitt (born 1978), German pornographic actress
Vivienne Poy, Chinese 利德蕙 (Ley6 Dak1-wai6) (b. 1941)
Vivienne Tam, Chinese 譚燕玉 (Tán Yànyù), Hong Kong fashion designer (b. 1957)
Vivean Gray, British TV and film actress (adopted name of Jean Vivra Gray)
The Lady of the Lake is Vivien in Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859) and elsewhere
Vivian Grey, hero of Benjamin Disraeli's first novel, published 1826
Vivien de Monbranc, hero of a 12th-century French chanson de geste
Vivian Alamain Kiriakis, a character on the American soap opera Days of Our Lives
Vivien Harmon, one of the main characters in the American TV show, American Horror Story
Vivian Volkoff, daughter of the main antagonist of Chuck's season four.
Vivian Joan Abbot Walker, one of the main characters of the novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells.
Vyvyan Basterd, the "headbanger" character (played by Ade Edmondson) in the British comedy series The Young Ones.
Vivian Ward, the title character (a prostitute) in the American movie, Pretty Woman (played by Julia Roberts).
Vivian Banks, or "Aunt Viv" character (played by Janet Hubert-Whitten and Daphne Maxwell Reid) in the American comedy series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
Vivian Sternwood, General Sternwood's oldest daughter and a key figure in Raymond Chandler's hardboiled crime novel The Big Sleep.
Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith, a character from the Monty Python sketch called Upper Class Twit of the Year
Vivienne, an ambitious and influential conservative mage from the video game Dragon Age: Inquisition who can be recruited as a party member.
Princess Vivian, a female character from Sofia The First. First appeared in The Shy Princess. Sofia The First is on Disney Junior.
Vyvyan Ayrs, a famous but reclusive male composer in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004).
Vivian, one of Mario's partners in the RPG Mario-game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
