Vie
A French feminine name derived from the word "vie" meaning "life".
Name Census estimates that about 1 living Americans carry the first name Vie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vie today is around 87 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vie births was 1918 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Vie is about 87 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Vies were born before 1949.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Vie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
1
~ 1 in 342,754,338 Americans
Peak year
1918
8 babies that year
Average age
87
years old
1933 SSA rank
#4,194
Tracked since 1897
Census
Vie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 133 people with the first name Vie, which placed it at #48,223 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#48,223
National first-name rank
People counted
133
133 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vie is White at 46.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.3%) and Black (15.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Vie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Vie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.6% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.3% · 35
- Black or African American15.0% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 11
- Two or more races3.8% · 5
Popularity
Vie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vie from the 1890s through to the 1930s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 13 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Vie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Vie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vie
The name Vie has its origins in the French language. It is a shortened form of the name Vivienne, which derives from the Latin name Vivianus. Vivianus itself is derived from the Latin word "vivus," meaning "alive" or "lively."
In the Middle Ages, the name Vivienne was relatively popular in France, particularly among the nobility. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vie dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in medieval French literature.
One notable historical figure with the name Vie was Vie de Châtillon, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She was the daughter of Gaucher de Châtillon, a prominent Crusader and military leader during the Albigensian Crusade.
Another famous bearer of the name was Vie de Lessay, a 14th-century French abbess who played a significant role in the religious and cultural life of her time. She was known for her writings and her efforts to promote education and learning among the nuns in her abbey.
In the 15th century, Vie de Vervins was a French noblewoman and courtier at the court of King Charles VII. She is mentioned in several historical records and chronicles from that period.
Moving forward to the 16th century, Vie de la Roche was a French poet and author who was part of the Renaissance literary movement in France. Her works, which included poetry and prose, were widely read and admired during her lifetime.
In the 17th century, Vie de Montpensier was a French noblewoman and memoirist. Her memoirs, known as the "Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier," provide a valuable insight into the life and culture of the French aristocracy during the reign of Louis XIV.
While the name Vie has its roots in French culture and history, it has also been adopted and used in other languages and cultures over time, albeit with varying spellings and pronunciations.
People
Vie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 342,754,338 US residents.
Is Vie a common name?
We classify Vie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 3.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vie most popular?
The single biggest year for Vie was 1918, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vie is about 87 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 133 people with the name Vie, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,223 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Vie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Vie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vie leans strongly female. 124 people counted with this name were female (88.6%), compared with 16 male bearers (11.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Vie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vie is White at 46.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.3%) and Black (15.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Vie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.6% (62 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Vie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Vie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Vie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Vie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.