Vivian
Meaning of Vivian
Vivian stems from the Latin “Vivianus,” meaning “alive,” an etymology that lets the name breathe with its own quiet confidence—one might say it performs its own pulse check. Depending on the linguistic tapestry, it is voiced as VIH-vee-uhn in English, VEE-vee-ahn in German, or the more continental vee-VYAHN in French, yet in every accent its syllables glide like the qanat streams of a Persian garden, steady and life-giving. Historically, Vivian moved through Europe on the cloak of early saints, later adopting a touch of Arthurian mystique in the figure of Viviane, Lady of the Lake, and a silver-screen sheen via Vivien Leigh. In the United States, the name surged during the Roaring Twenties, slipped into a mid-century siesta, and has wryly resurfaced—ranking 77th in 2024—suggesting that, much like the poems of Hafez, true vitality simply refuses to age. Parents drawn to a name that balances vintage charm with empirical staying power may find that Vivian, quietly alive in meaning and statistics alike, makes an unhurried yet persuasive case.
Pronunciation
German
- Pronunced as VEE-vee-ahn (/ˈviːviːan/)
French
- Pronunced as vee-VYAHN (/vi.vjɑ̃/)
English
- Pronunced as VIH-vee-uhn (/ˈvɪviən/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Vivian
| Vivian Maier was an American street photographer whose work, discovered after her death, captured everyday life in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and around the world. |
| Vivian Lee - Vivian S. Lee is an American radiologist and health tech leader, a Harvard executive fellow and senior lecturer, author of The Long Fix, and a 2019 Modern Healthcare influencer known for advancing data, AI, equity, and climate resilience in health care. |
| Vivian Vance was an American actress best known as Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy, a 1953 Emmy winner who also starred with Lucille Ball on The Lucy Show and was posthumously honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. |
| Vivian Malone Jones became the University of Alabama’s first black graduate in 1965 after defying Governor George Wallace and later served the nation through civil rights and public service roles. |
| Vivian Howard is an American chef, restaurateur, author, and television host best known for the PBS series A Chef's Life, which spotlighted eastern North Carolina cooking through her Kinston restaurant Chef and the Farmer, co-owned with her then-husband Ben Knight. |
| Vivian Chu is an American roboticist and entrepreneur, cofounder and CTO of Diligent Robotics, advancing human robot interaction with socially intelligent autonomous mobile robots. |
| Vivian Hsu is a Taiwanese actress, model, and singer who won a teen talent show, joined Girls Team, found fame in Japan with Black Biscuits and on NHK Kohaku in 1998, and has focused on Greater China since 2003. |
| Vivian Bullwinkel - Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Statham was an Australian Army nurse and the sole surviving nurse of the 1942 Bangka Island Massacre during World War II. |
| Vivian Alferetta Dandridge was an American singer, actress, and dancer, the older sister of Dorothy Dandridge and a member of the Dandridge Sisters, who later took minor screen roles before leaving the spotlight and dying in 1991 at age 70. |
| Vivian Sakiyyah Green is an American R and B singer, songwriter, and pianist. |
| Vivian Vanessa Kubrick, also known as Abigail Mead, is an American film composer and director and the youngest daughter of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and his wife Christiane. |
| Vivian Perlis was an American musicologist who founded and directed the Oral History of American Music at Yale University. |
| Vivian Carol Sobchack is an American film and media scholar and cultural critic. |
| Vivian Wu is a Chinese American actress who broke out in The Last Emperor and went on to star in films like The Joy Luck Club, The Pillow Book, and The Soong Sisters, as well as TV series Away and The Afterparty. |
