Does the name Vincent mean "to conquer" or "to occupy"?

Behind the Name derives Vincent from the Roman name Vincentius and the Latin verb vinco, "to conquer", not "to occupy".

What does the name Vladimir mean?

Behind the Name derives Vladimir from Old Slavic elements meaning "to rule" and "great, famous". The second element has also been linked with a word meaning "peace, world", so the name is often explained both ways.

Christian Boy Names Starting With V: Three Vincents, Three Valentines, and What Is Known of Each

Vincent de Paul wrote an estimated 30,000 letters, while of one of the three martyrs called Valentine the Catholic Encyclopedia says that "nothing further is known". Those two records mark the range for Christian boy names starting with V.

No familiar man in the Bible carries a V name, so each V name reaches a family through a saint. Below, each name is matched to its saint or saints and to the kind of record that survives: letters and canonization acts, an early cult with stories written centuries later, or a single line in a martyrology.

Quick Facts

Men in the Bible with V names: None among familiar figures; Behind the Name's biblical list has no V entry
Saints named Vincent here: Three: Saragossa (died 304), Ferrer (1350 to 1419) and de Paul (died 1660)
Valentines on 14 February: At least three martyrs in the early martyrologies
Largest written record: Vincent de Paul's letters, estimated at not less than 30,000
Thinnest record: Vitus: a place, a century and a legend

Which saint stands behind each V name, and what record survives?

Behind the Name's list of masculine biblical names has no entry under V, and none of the familiar men of the Old or New Testament carries a V name. The V names Christian families use come instead from saints, and those saints left very different kinds of evidence.

V names by the record each saint left
Name	Saint	Lifetime	What the record contains	Source
Vincent	Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity	Died 1660	A dated life, canonization in 1737, and letters estimated at not less than 30,000, of which about 3,200 were in print by 1911	Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
Vincent	Vincent Ferrer, Dominican preacher	1350 to 1419	A dated public career, writings and sermons printed from 1570, and canonization in 1455	Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
Vincent	Vincent of Saragossa, deacon and martyr	Died 304	A cult attested by Augustine's Sermon 275, with Acts that survive only in an 8th- or 9th-century text	Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
Valentine	A priest of Rome, a bishop of Terni, and a martyr in Africa	3rd century for the first two; unknown for the third	Entries in early martyrologies under 14 February and late Acts "of no historical value"	Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
Victor	Pope Victor I	Late 2nd century	His part in the Easter dispute, reported by Eusebius, and two conflicting sets of dates for his reign	Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
Vitus	Vitus, a child martyr in Sicily	Early 4th century	A place and a century; the encyclopedia's index files his story as legend	Behind the Name; Catholic Encyclopedia index
Vladimir	Vladimir the Great, grand prince of Kyiv	Died 1015	His title, his death year and the reason he is venerated	Behind the Name; Catholic Encyclopedia index

The rows run from the fullest record to the thinnest: Vincent de Paul's own letters can still be read, while Vitus is known by little more than his island and his century.

Which Saint Vincent is the name Vincent from?

The name came before all three saints: Behind the Name traces Vincent to the Roman family name Vincentius, which was popular among early Christians and borne by many saints. Vincent de Paul, the latest of the three, left the fullest record, so his comes first.

Vincent de Paul was born at Pouy in Gascony in 1580 by the Catholic Encyclopedia's date, which notes that some authorities said 1576, while Behind the Name gives 1581. Even the best-documented V saint has a disputed birth year; his death in Paris on 27 September 1660 is not in doubt.

He founded the first conference of charity for the relief of the poor, the Congregation of the Mission for preaching to country people, and the Daughters of Charity, and Clement XII canonized him on 16 June 1737.

The encyclopedia estimates that he wrote not less than 30,000 letters. Nearly 7,000 had been gathered by the 18th century, many have since been lost, and about 3,200 were in print by 1911, so the man behind the name can still be read in his own words.

Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican born in Valencia on 23 January 1350, is the Vincent of the late Middle Ages. In the encyclopedia's words, "for twenty years he traversed western Europe, preaching penance for sin and preparation for judgment", and he died at Vannes in Brittany on 5 April 1419.

His record joins dated public acts to miracle stories. He sat among the judges at the Compromise of Caspe, which chose the next king of Aragon, his sermons were printed at Antwerp in 1570, and Calixtus III canonized him on 3 June 1455.

The same record holds facts a namesake's family may not expect. Ferrer wrote a defence of the Avignon popes and stayed loyal to Benedict XIII, whom the encyclopedia calls an antipope, until 1416, and many of his biographers credited him with the gift of tongues, since he could speak only Limousin, the language of Valencia.

Vincent of Saragossa is the oldest of the three: a deacon martyred under Diocletian in 304, whom the encyclopedia calls "the most renowned martyr of Spain". His bishop, Valerius, had a speech impediment, so Vincent did the preaching for the diocese until the governor Dacian had both men taken in chains to Valencia.

His record splits in two. Augustine's Sermon 275 shows that his Acts were read in the churches of Africa by the end of the fourth century, but the Acts that survive date from the eighth or ninth century and were "compiled from tradition", agreeing in substance with the verse life by the poet Prudentius.

The honour paid to Vincent of Saragossa is early and well attested, while the details of his torments come through a text written four or five centuries after his death.

What is actually known about Saint Valentine?

Saint Valentine was real in the sense that early martyrologies list martyrs of that name on 14 February, but they list at least three of them. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) names a priest at Rome, a bishop of Interamna, now Terni, and a third Valentine who died in Africa with a number of companions.

The Roman priest and the bishop of Terni seem both to have died in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, at different distances from Rome. Acts survive for both, but the encyclopedia judges them "of relatively late date and of no historical value", and of the African Valentine "nothing further is known".

The martyrs themselves are real, while their lives are almost unknown. Any detailed life story told about Saint Valentine therefore goes beyond the record the encyclopedia accepts.

The love customs of 14 February did not come from any of these martyrs. The encyclopedia traces them to a belief, common in England and France in the Middle Ages, that birds began to pair on that day, which Chaucer's Parliament of Foules puts in verse: "For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate."

In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews tells a hoped-for son-in-law that "upon Monday is Saint Valentine's Day and every bird chooses himself a mate", and her daughter then addresses him as "my rightwell beloved Valentine". By then, the encyclopedia says, people who chose each other in this way seem to have called each other their Valentines.

Pope Victor I and the quarrel over the date of Easter

Victor is the V name with an early pope behind it: Victor I led the Roman church at the end of the second century, in 189 to 198 or 199 by the Catholic Encyclopedia's count. The Liber Pontificalis, working from the Liberian Catalogue, gives 186 to 197 instead and calls him a native of Africa.

His best-recorded act concerns Easter. Christians at Rome who came from the province of Asia kept it on the 14th day of Nisan, whatever the day of the week, so Victor called a meeting of Italian bishops, "the earliest Roman synod known", and asked bishops elsewhere to meet; their letters reported that Easter was kept on Sunday.

When Victor declared that the bishops of Asia would be excluded from the fellowship of the Church unless they changed, Irenaeus of Lyons and others urged him to keep peace with them. Irenaeus reminded him that earlier popes had kept Easter on Sunday without breaking communion over it (Eusebius, Church History V.23-25).

The encyclopedia also relates that Marcia, a woman with influence at the court of the Emperor Commodus, asked Victor for a list of Roman Christians condemned to the mines of Sardinia, and that the list he gave her led to their release.

Jerome calls Victor "the first Latin writer in the Church", yet the encyclopedia knows none of his works besides the letters on the Easter question.

Vitus, a child martyr, and Vladimir, a prince of Kyiv

Behind the Name records Vitus as a Latin name from vita, "life", and says Saint Vitus "was a child martyred in Sicily in the early 4th century". The Catholic Encyclopedia's index lists him with Modestus and Crescentia as martyrs under Diocletian "according to the legend", so beyond his place and century his story belongs to legend.

Vladimir is a Slavic name whose saint is Vladimir the Great, grand prince of Kyiv, who, in Behind the Name's words, "is venerated as a saint because of his efforts to Christianize his realm". The encyclopedia's index calls him the grandson of Saint Olga and gives his death as 1015.