Viv

given name · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Viv is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: ,3 Short form of ) Vivian and ) Vivien.

rarermore common
  • AUAustralia≈1 in 39K(inferred from the name graph)
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 57K
  • USUnited States1 in 1.1M

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈3,200 people, est.

Sources
190 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 29K (inferred from the name graph)

New Zealand, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

,3 Short form of ) Vivian and ) Vivien. Vivi ° Pet form of the girls’ names ) Vivien and > Vivian. 246

Sources 1

  • A concise dictionary of first names

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Viv counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Viv is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China≈3,200 est.≈1 in 442K—Viv8
GB United Kingdom≈1,200 est.≈1 in 57KlistedViv150
AU Australia≈660 est.≈1 in 39K—Viv97
NG Nigeria≈510 est.≈1 in 419K—Viv9
US United States2961 in 1.1M262Viv190
HK Hong Kong≈190 est.≈1 in 39K—Viv11
NZ New Zealand≈170 est.≈1 in 29K—Viv59
IE Ireland≈83 est.≈1 in 63K—Viv25

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; the hanks-first-names-2001 register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Viv is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Mexico, Philippines

    Also written Vi-V, Vìv

  • French given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand

    Also written Vïv, Vîv

  • Norwegian given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden

    Languages: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish

    Also written Vîv

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Viv is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Lao, 1. adj. surprised, startled, trembling with fear. 2. n. a sensation that the heart will stop beating. & : € Re

    as a wordLao-English Dictionary

  • English: short form, usually feminine, of VIVIAN and VIVIEN .

    as a word

  • In Catalan, first-person singular present indicative of vivir

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Iduna.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Danish, wife, female spouse

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

190019502000Viv Woodward, b. 1914Viv Aston, b. 1918Viv Nicholson, b. 1936Viv Thomas, b. 1948Viv Busby, b. 1949Viv Anderson, b. 1956Viv Groskop, b. 1973Viv Leacock, b. 1974Viv Solomon-Otabor, b. 1996

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 17 sources across 11 countries.

Official registers attesting Viv
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020262#29,770
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202034#29,770
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)19605—
GB United KingdomA Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001)———
GB United KingdomThe Penguin Book of Baby Names (David Pickering)———

Reference works 2

  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Viv come from?
,3 Short form of ) Vivian and ) Vivien. Vivi ° Pet form of the girls’ names ) Vivien and > Vivian. 246 Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
Is Viv a male or female name?
Viv is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Viv mean?
Recorded meaning: ,3 Short form of ) Vivian and ) Vivien.
What are other forms of the name Viv?
In the etymology graph, Vivian is a form of the same name in other languages.
In which country does Viv have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 3.2 thousand people named Viv in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled viv.
How common is the name Viv?
In the United States, the national register counted 296 people named Viv in 2020, about 1 in 1.1 million residents.

What do you want to know about Viv?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/viv

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Viv”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Viv parses inside a full name →