Vivienne
Feminine · “alive”
Vivienne is the French feminine of a Latin name built on the word for living, and it has been spelled this way since French was the language of European courts. In the Old French Arthurian romances, Viviane is the name given to the Lady of the Lake — one of the oldest literary homes of the name. Said aloud it has four light beats and a soft landing, and it shortens in one syllable to Viv.
How old is the name Vivienne?
Vivienne first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Vivienne is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 22,000 people named Vivienne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Vivienne most popular?
Vivienne peaked in 2025, reaching #172 nationally. Today it ranks #172, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Vivienne appears on these lists:
- Names at their all-time peak, right now
- Eight-letter names with presence
- Names with only one spelling
- Names with a double letter
- French names with effortless chic
- Celebrity baby names that caught on
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From Vivianus to Vivienne
The story of Vivienne
The root is the Roman name Vivianus, formed from the Latin vivus, "alive". Its feminine, Viviana, passed into Old French as Viviane and Vivienne, and it was in French Arthurian prose romance of the thirteenth century that Viviane became the name of the Lady of the Lake. English took up the family early, though for centuries in Britain Vivian was chiefly a man's name and a surname; the -enne spelling stayed clearly feminine, marked by the French ending. It reached American records in the late nineteenth century and has kept the French dress ever since — as in the British designer Vivienne Westwood, who made the spelling familiar far beyond France.
Meaning
alive, living
From Latin vivus, "alive", through the Roman name Vivianus and its feminine Viviana.
Cultural footprint
Vivienne Westwood (b. 1941) — The designer who brought punk to fashion
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Vivianus
- Viviana
- Viviane
- Vivienne
Related forms: Viviane · Vivian · Vivien · Viviana · Viviana · Vivianus
Pronouncing Vivienne
viv-ee-EN
Also widely said VIV-ee-en with the weight on the first syllable; both are accepted in American English. The French original puts the stress on the final syllable, which is where the four-beat version comes from.
Nicknames for Vivienne
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
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 20251,786 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #172reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +69.9%1,786 in 2025, from 1,051
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.
Vivienne in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Viviane in French — same name
- Vivian in English — related form
- Vivien in English — spelling variant
- Viviana in Italian — same name
- Viviana in Spanish — same name
- Vivianus in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Viviennes among us
people named Vivienne are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 900 born in 2025 was named Vivienne
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 Dianna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Vivienne's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dianna climbed just as high around 1948, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dianna's path sketches the road Vivienne is walking now.
Vivienne is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Vivienne is headed
Vivienne looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Vivienne beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Vivienne in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two well-worn short forms, Viv and Vivi, both in real use for generations and neither invented for the occasion.
- A documented line running from Latin through French to English, with a meaning that is settled rather than argued over.
- The same name exists in French, Italian and Spanish, so it travels without translation.
- Familiar in sound while still uncommon in the classroom — most children with this name will not meet another.
- Three spellings compete — Vivian, Vivien and Vivienne — and all three are legitimate. Expect to spell it out at appointments and on forms for life.
- Vivian has a long history as a man's name in Britain and as a surname, so the wider family reads as unisex even though this spelling does not.
- The pronunciation splits between viv-ee-EN and VIV-ee-en, and both will be used by people meeting her for the first time.
- The name is climbing, so it is likely to feel more common by the time she is in school than it does now.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Vivienne
Feminine · #172 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Viviennes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Vivienne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Vivienne in 2025?
- Vivienne ranks #172 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,786 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Vivienne?
- About 1 in every 900 US girls born in 2025 was named Vivienne — 1,786 in all.
- Will my child share the name Vivienne with classmates?
- Vivienne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Vivienne
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosalie#171 · Ruth#173 · Gemma#170 · Ariella#174 · Blair#169 · Callie#175 · Ailani#168 · Isabel#176
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Vivienne? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Vivienne and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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