Definition of "Vivian"

Of the you're-going-to-get-it-anyway faction was a young Australian on board by the name, so help me, of Vivian Nankervis. - - - And he was beautiful, even with a name like Vivian; moreover, he had never been ill a day in his life.

1942, Caroline Mytinger, Headhunting in the Solomon Islands, Macmillan, page 13

'What's your name?' 'Vivian.' 'Isn't that one of the names that mean something?' She said, 'It means my mother used to go to the movies.'

1990, Paul Theroux, Chicago Loop, Hamish Hamilton Ltd, page 70

"Mr. Grey," asked her ladyship, "are you of Dorsetshire?" "My mother is a Dorsetshire woman; her family name is Vivian, which name I also bear - Sir Hargrave Vivian, of Chester Grange."

1827, Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey, E. L. Carey and A. Hart (1837), page 117