Vitalianus, a name formed out of this, is hardly to be recognized in the Welsh form of Gwethalyn.
Vivia, from vivus (alive), was the first name of Vivia Perpetua, the noble young matron of Carthage, whose martyrdom, so circumstantially told, is one of the most grand and most affecting histories in the annals of the early Church. Her other name of Perpetua has, however, been chosen by her votaresses.
Vivianus and Viviana were names of later Roman days, often, in the West, pronounced with a B, and we find a Christian maiden, named Bibiana, put to death by a Roman governor, under Julian the Apostate, under pretence of her having destroyed one of his eyes by magic, a common excuse for persecution in the days of pretended toleration. A church was built over her remains as early as 465, and, considering the accusation against her, it is curious to find Vyvyan or Viviana the enchantress of King Arthur’s court.
Vivian has been a name for both sexes, and a Scottish Vivian Wemyss, bishop of Fife in 615, was canonized, and known to Rome as St. Bibianus.
Vitus was the child whom St. Crescentia bred up a Christian, and who died in Lucania with her. His day was the 15th of June, and had the reputation of entailing thirty days of similar weather to its own.
Vitus is Vita, in Bohemia; Vida, in Hungary; Veicht and Veidl, in Bavaria; and is used to Latinize Guy; but it is probable that this last is truly Celtic, and it shall be treated of hereafter.[[85]]
[85]. Fleury, Histoire Ecclesiastique; Butler; Villemarque, Romans de la Table Ronde; Roscoe, Boiardo; Brand, Popular Antiquities; Grimm; Michaelis.
Section XVII.—Wolves and Bears.
The Roman lupus had truly a right to stand high in Roman estimation, considering the good offices of the she-wolf to the founder, and the wolf and the twins will continue an emblem as long as Rome stands, in spite of the explanation that declared that the nurse was either named Lupa, or so called, because the Roman word applied to a woman of bad character, and in spite of the later relegation of the entire tale to the realms of mythology. Lupus was accordingly a surname in the Rutilian gens, and was borne by many other Romans, thus descending to the three Romanized countries. St. Lupus, or Loup of Troyes, curiously enough succeeded St. Ursus, or Ours, and was notable both for his confutation of the Pelagian heresy, and for having saved his diocese by his intercession with Attila. Another sainted Lupus, or Loup, was Bishop of Lyons. Italy has the Christian name of Lupo; Portugal, Lobo; Spain, Lope. The great poet, Lope de Vega, might be translated, the wolf of the meadow.