Vincentius was well used by early Roman Christians and several saints bore the name including three 4th century saints, one 5th century and one 7th century saint.
Of these, the earliest, Saint Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), had a wide cult veneration, beyond his native Spain and into France in the Middle Ages. Significantly, Castres became an important stop on the international pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela when the relics of Vincent were transferred to its new abbey-church from Saragossa in 863.
The island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean was also named after Vincent of Saragossa by Christopher Columbus, because the island was discovered by Europeans on 22 January, St. Vincent's feast day.
In England, Vincent came into use around 1200. One Vincent is recorded in 1189 in the Surveys of the Estate of Glastonbury Abbey; a Vincentius appears in the 1206 Curia Regis Rolls of Norfolk; Vincent de Winchecumbe is listed in 1207 in the Pleas and Assize Rolls of Oxfordshire and Vincent de Culeham is on the Curia Regis Rolls of Berkshire in 1212.
It was certainly used well enough to create the surnames Vincent, Vincett, Vinsen Vinson and Vinsun in the 13th century, not long after the given name was introduced.
In Smith Bannister's rank of top 50 names from 1538 to 1700 in England, Vincent only appears in one of the sixteen decade rankings: just scraping in at #50 in 1590-9. For all the other fifteen decades of top 50 rankings, Vincent fell below.
This shows us that Vincent remained in constant use through to the Early Modern period, but was never especially common.
The French Roman Catholic priest, Saint Vincent de Paul (1581–1660), founded the Vincentian Order of the Sisters of Charity in the 17th century. According to E.G. Withycombe, this "increased its use in Roman Catholic countries" alongside the veneration of Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419).
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By the 19th century, Vincent steadily began to rise in England and Wales. Data from the 1881 UK census (see image, right) shows that it was little used in Scotland or Wales, but was mostly used in England.
1850: #133 1860: #131 1870: #129 1880: #124 1890: #106 1900: #103 1914: #91 1924: #78 1934: #85 1944: #94 1954: #87 1964: #72
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By 1974, Vincent had fallen out of the top 100 in England and Wales.
Since 1996, Vincent has seen a steady rise in England and Wales. From #245 (117 births) in 1996, it reached #195 (225 births) in 2006 and has been in the top 200 consecutively for the last five years.
The short form Vinnie has also seen a rise. From not ranking at all in 1996, it hit the top 500 at #406 (64 births) in 2003 and was #184 (305 births) in 2016.
In 2016, Vincent ranked #156 (380 births) in England and Wales, but regionally ranked highest at #123 in the South East and #142 in the East.
Vincent also ranked #264 (17 births) in Scotland in 2017 and #281 (6 births) in Northern Ireland in 2016.
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