Vinicius
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "the one who conquers".
Name Census estimates that about 380 living Americans carry the first name Vinicius. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Vinicius today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vinicius births was 2003 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vinicius. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Vinicius with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
380
~ 1 in 901,985 Americans
Peak year
2003
22 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,140
Tracked since 1992
Census
Vinicius in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,538 people with the first name Vinicius, which placed it at #9,158 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
#9,158
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,538 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vinicius
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vinicius is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.7%) and Black (5.2%). 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 Vinicius 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 Vinicius at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 1,252
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 87
- Black or African American5.2% · 80
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 57
- Two or more races3.4% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 10
Popularity
Vinicius: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vinicius from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 176 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vinicius 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 Vinicius during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Vinicius' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Vinicius
The name Vinicius has its roots in ancient Roman culture, originating as a Roman family name or cognomen. It is derived from the Latin word "vinicus," which means "wine-related" or "of wine." This suggests that the name may have been associated with families involved in the wine industry or vineyards in ancient Rome.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vinicius can be found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Tacitus. He mentions a Roman consul named Vinicius who lived during the 1st century AD. Tacitus's accounts provide valuable insights into the prevalence and usage of this name during the Roman imperial period.
In the realm of literature, the name Vinicius gained prominence through the novel "Quo Vadis" by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1896. The novel's protagonist, Marcus Vinicius, is a young Roman patrician who falls in love with a Christian woman named Lygia. This work brought the name Vinicius to the attention of a wider audience and contributed to its popularity.
Throughout history, several noteworthy individuals have borne the name Vinicius. One of the most famous was Vinicius of Sirmium, a 4th-century Christian martyr and saint. He was born around 290 AD in the Roman province of Pannonia and was martyred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Diocletian.
Another prominent figure was Marcus Vinicius Quatronius Valerius, a Roman senator and historian who lived during the 2nd century AD. He is best known for his work "De Vita Caesarum," which provided biographies of several Roman emperors.
In the realm of literature and arts, Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980) was a renowned Brazilian poet, composer, and playwright. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Brazilian music and culture, contributing to the development of the Bossa Nova genre.
Marcus Vinicius Billicum Pires (1868-1923) was a Brazilian lawyer, journalist, and politician who served as the Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro from 1914 to 1916.
Vinicius Coelho (born 1983) is a contemporary Brazilian football player who has played for various clubs, including Corinthians and Fluminense, and has represented the Brazilian national team.
People
Vinicius + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vinicius 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
Vinicius: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vinicius?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vinicius 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 901,985 US residents.
Is Vinicius a common name?
We classify Vinicius as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 385 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vinicius most popular?
The single biggest year for Vinicius was 2003, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vinicius is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vinicius in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,538 people with the name Vinicius, or 0.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,158 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 Vinicius 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 Vinicius?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vinicius appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,546 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Vinicius?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vinicius is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.7%) and Black (5.2%). 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 Vinicius most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vinicius in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (1,252 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 Vinicius in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vinicius a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vinicius in the SSA data are male. 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 Vinicius still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vinicius 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 Vinicius 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 Vinicius?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.