Vincent
Masculine · “conquering”
Vincent is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 363,296 boys against 1,420 girls since 1880. See Vincent as a girl name
Vincent is grammatically a verb. Latin vincens is the present participle of vincere, to conquer — so the name does not say victor or victory but conquering, an action in progress rather than a result. Very few names are participles, and fewer still are ones that have stayed in continuous use for sixteen centuries.
How old is the name Vincent?
Vincent was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Vincent alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 263,000 people named Vincent are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Vincent most popular?
Vincent peaked in 1966, reaching #58 nationally. Today it ranks #107, 49 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Where it comes from
From vincens to Vincent
The story of Vincent
The name belonged first to a deacon of Saragossa martyred in the early fourth century, whose cult spread across Spain, Portugal and France and made the name ordinary in all three. It gained a second life through a seventeenth-century French priest who organized charity on a scale nobody had attempted before, and whose name is still on hospitals and thrift shops across the world. And it gained a third through a Dutch painter who signed his canvases with his first name only, sold almost nothing in his lifetime, and is now among the most recognized artists who ever lived. Three men, three centuries, one name — which is a great deal of weight for six letters to carry, and it carries them lightly.
Meaning
conquering
Vincentius is built on vincens, from vincere, to conquer or prevail — the same verb behind Victor, Victoria, convince and evince. The participial form matters: Victor names someone who has won, Vincent names the winning as it happens. Early Christians liked the name for exactly that reason, applying it to endurance under persecution rather than to battle. The derivation is not disputed anywhere.
Cultural footprint
Vincent van Gogh (b. 1853) — Sold one painting in his lifetime; now his works go for hundreds of millions
Vincent Price (b. 1911) — Horror's velvet-voiced icon
Vincent de Paul (b. 1581) — The saint of charity
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- vincens
- Vincentius
- Vincent
Related forms: Vincenzo · Vicente · Vincent · Vicente · Wincenty · Vincent
Pronouncing Vincent
VIN-sunt
VIN-sunt, two syllables, stress at the front, the second vowel reduced. French says van-SAHN with the weight at the back and a nasal ending. Italian gives four syllables to Vincenzo. The English reading has been stable for centuries.
Nicknames for Vincent
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19636,152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #58reached in 1966
- Change vs 2022
- +9.7%3,267 in 2025, from 2,978
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Vincent in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Vincenzo in Italian — same name
- Vicente in Spanish — same name
- Vincent in French — same name
- Vicente in Portuguese — same name
- Wincenty in Polish — same name
- Vincent in Dutch — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Vincents among us
people named Vincent are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 523 born in 2025 was named Vincent
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Willard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Vincent's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Willard climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Willard's path sketches the road Vincent is walking now.
Vincent has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Vincent is headed
Vincent should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Vincent beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Vincent in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has been in continuous use in English for many centuries without ever belonging to one period.
- Vince and Vinny are both complete working names, and they sit at opposite ends of formality.
- Every Catholic language has a version, so it crosses a border without translation.
- The meaning is precise and grammatically unusual, which gives the name something genuinely its own to say.
- It is strongly associated with Catholic and particularly Italian-American families, which for some is the point and for others is a history they are not part of.
- Vinny arrives whether or not it is wanted, and it carries a set of screen associations that are hard to shake.
- The painter is the first thing many people think of, and his story is not a cheerful one.
- This spelling is recorded for girls too, though so rarely that a girl named Vincent will be read as a boy on every form; Vincenza carries the same root without that.
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What they receive
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Vincent
Masculine · #107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Vincents are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 263,000 people named Vincent are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Vincent in 2025?
- Vincent ranks #107 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,267 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Vincent?
- About 1 in every 523 US boys born in 2025 was named Vincent — 3,267 in all.
- Will my child share the name Vincent with classmates?
- Vincent will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Vincent
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Xavier#108 · Dominic#106 · Amir#105 · Damian#109 · Eli#104 · Easton#110 · River#111 · Colton#103
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Vincent? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Vincent and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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