Vivien
Feminine name derived from Latin "vivere" meaning "alive" or "full of life".
Name Census estimates that about 4,974 living Americans carry the first name Vivien. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vivien today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vivien births was 2014 (248 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vivien. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Vivien with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 68,909 Americans
Peak year
2014
248 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
1924 SSA rank
#1,721
Tracked since 1885
Census
Vivien in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,998 people with the first name Vivien, which placed it at #3,462 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,462
National first-name rank
People counted
6.0K
5,998 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vivien
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vivien is White at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Vivien described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Vivien at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.9% · 3,534
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.2% · 1,210
- Hispanic or Latino10.7% · 643
- Black or African American5.1% · 303
- Two or more races4.9% · 293
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Vivien
Out of the 7,319 babies given the name Vivien since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Vivien as a male name
- Ranked #3,243 in 1924
- 9 male births in 1924
- Peak: 1924 (9 births)
Vivien as a female name
- Ranked #1,721 in 2024
- 118 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (248 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vivien leans strongly female. 5,906 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 91 male bearers (1.5%).
Popularity
Vivien: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vivien from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,098 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Vivien remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vivien by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Vivien during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Viviens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Vivien, while South Carolina, Oregon, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 109 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vivien
The name Vivien originated from the Latin name Vivianus, which was derived from the root word "vivus" meaning "alive" or "lively." This name was popular in ancient Rome and the Roman Empire, where it was often given to children as a representation of vitality and liveliness.
In the Middle Ages, the name took on various spellings, including Vivien, Vivian, and Vivienne, as it spread throughout Europe. During this time, it was particularly popular in France and England, where it was associated with the Arthurian legends. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vivien can be found in the 12th-century French poem "Perceval, the Story of the Grail" by Chrétien de Troyes, where a character named Vivien appears.
The name gained further recognition in the 15th century with the publication of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur," which featured the character Vivien, the Lady of the Lake. This character was portrayed as a powerful enchantress who played a significant role in the Arthurian legends.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Vivien. One of the earliest was Vivien de Monbranc (c. 1080-1115), a French nobleman and crusader who participated in the First Crusade. Another prominent figure was Vivien de Portzmoguer (c. 1460-1523), a French navigator and explorer who sailed with Jacques Cartier on his expeditions to the New World.
In the literary world, Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) was a renowned British actress best known for her iconic portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind." She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles in "Gone with the Wind" and "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Another notable bearer of the name was Vivien Kellems (1896-1975), an American businesswoman, and political activist who fought against the withholding tax system in the United States. She was a pioneer in the field of industrial cable manufacturing and played a significant role in advancing women's rights in the workplace.
Vivien Merchant (1929-1982) was a British actress and playwright who co-founded the Royal Shakespeare Company with her husband, the renowned director Peter Brook. She was acclaimed for her performances in both classical and contemporary plays and won numerous awards throughout her career.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Vivien
People
Vivien + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vivien as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vivien: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vivien?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,974 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vivien going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 68,909 US residents.
Is Vivien a common name?
We classify Vivien as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,319 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vivien most popular?
The single biggest year for Vivien was 2014, when 248 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vivien is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vivien in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,998 people with the name Vivien, or 1.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,462 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Vivien in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Vivien?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vivien leans strongly female. 5,906 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 91 male bearers (1.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Vivien?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vivien is White at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Vivien most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vivien in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.9% (3,534 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Vivien in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vivien a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Vivien in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Vivien still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vivien in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Vivien can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Vivien?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Vivien at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.