Humanverse

Vivica vs Vivien

American parents have registered 7,429 Viviens since 1880, against 958 Vivicas. Vivien is still ahead, with 108 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Vivica against Vivien, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Vivica Vivien

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 136 years in which either name was published, Vivien for 131 years and Vivica for 5 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Vivica Vivien
Total US births 9587,429
Most in one year 97248
Babies in 2025 7108
Estimated living today 9405,300
Median age today 2314
Peak year 19982014
Best rank 1,657th girls1,050th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932nd1,844th
First recorded 19501885
Girls / boys 958 / 07,403 / 26

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Vivicas alive today are over 23; half the Viviens are over 14. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Vivica and Vivien.