I actually thought that viz was a computer term that meant virtual.
Anyway, I have confirmation that Viz is the actual teammate but I am still left wondering what name Viz is short for.
The answer is probably " none of your business " which is fair enough.
Viz is actually a contraction of
videlicet, which itself is a contraction of
videre licet, "it is permitted to see". Originally used to denote in print a revelation from a confidential source, its meaning has shifted to denote any explanatory exposition, with the inference that said exposition provides evidence for a postulate being advanced. Hence its frequent use in, for example, older generation mathematics textbooks, prior to the presentation of a proof.
Merriam-Webster is unusually informative with respect to the matter of the "z" appearing in
viz. Originally, in mediaeval manuscripts, a special symbol was used to denote contraction of Latin words ending in
-et, and this special symbol bore some resemblance to the letter 'z', and was thus eventually morphed into a 'z' over time. The symbol in question appears in
this Unicode chart, in the form of two variations, given the Unicode code numbers 0xA76A and 0xA76B (note:
hexadecimal notation! The decimal codes are 42858 and 42859 respectively). The symbol was originally an Arabic '3', but which morphed over time to resemble 0x0292 (decimal 658) from
this character chart, which sees modern use in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
More on this subject can be derived by reading
this article on scribal abbreviations, which cause no end of headaches for scholars deciphering mediaeval manuscripts, as use of these was frequent, but
not subject to any consensus standardisation. A fairly lengthy tome devoted to this subject can be downloaded for free from
here, for those who wish to delve into this
voluminous subject matter further. An insight into the Byzantine nature of the subject can be obtained from
here.