Scarlette
Feminine · Old French roots
Behind this name is a cloth, not a color: escarlate, a costly imported fabric that gave medieval England the surname Scarlett. It reached first names through Margaret Mitchell's heroine in Gone with the Wind, and this spelling adds the -ette ending that English already knew from Juliette and Colette. Three syllables that land on the same sound as the familiar Scarlett, with one extra letter doing the work.
How old is the name Scarlette?
Scarlette first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Scarlette is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,700 people named Scarlette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Scarlette most popular?
Scarlette peaked in 2016, reaching #694 nationally. Today it ranks #1173, 479 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Scarlette appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From escarlate (Old French, a rich cloth) to Scarlette
The story of Scarlette
Scarlett began as an English occupational surname for people who worked with escarlate, a luxury cloth traded through Old French, and it stayed a surname for centuries. Margaret Mitchell handed it to Scarlett O'Hara in her 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, and within a few years the surname was being written on birth certificates as a first name. Scarlette is the same name with the French-style -ette ending grafted on, a pattern English readers already recognized from Juliette, Annette and Colette. Its life on the charts has been almost entirely a recent one, which is why nearly everyone carrying it is still young.
Meaning
from the surname for a dealer in or maker of scarlet cloth
The Old French escarlate named a rich, expensive fabric first; the sense of a bright red color attached to the word later. So the name reaches red by way of the cloth trade.
How the name formed
- escarlateOld French, a rich cloth
- ScarlettEnglish surname
- Scarlettgiven name
- Scarlette
Related forms: Scarlett · Scarlet · Scarletta
Pronouncing Scarlette
SKAR-let
The final -e is silent, so it sounds exactly like Scarlett. Some families say SKAR-let-tee, but that is not the standard reading.
Nicknames for Scarlette
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1940
- Most girls named
- 2015364 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #694reached in 2016
- Change vs 2023
- −17.9%197 in 2025, from 240
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Scarlette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Scarlett in English — spelling variant
- Scarlet in English — spelling variant
- Scarletta in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Scarlettes among us
people named Scarlette are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,159 born in 2025 was named Scarlette
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lynsey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Scarlette's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lynsey climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lynsey's path sketches the road Scarlette is walking now.
Scarlette sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Scarlette is headed
Scarlette is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Scarlette beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Scarlette in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds identical to the widely known Scarlett, so no one has to be taught how to say it.
- Has real short forms already in circulation — Scarlett, Lettie, Letty.
- The -ette ending sits in an established English pattern alongside Juliette, Annette and Colette.
- Uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, while the sound itself is fully familiar.
- Traceable to a documented medieval English surname and the cloth trade behind it.
- The spelling will be corrected for life. Scarlett is the version most people know, Scarlet the next, and forms, teachers and airline tickets will default to one of those unless you spell it out each time.
- Gone with the Wind carries the name into every conversation about it, and the novel's romanticized picture of the antebellum South is part of that association for many readers.
- The obvious clipping is Scar, which brings the everyday English word — and a well-known villain — along with it.
- Because the name's wave is very recent, almost everyone who has it is a child right now; there are few grown women named Scarlette to show how it wears at forty.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Scarlette to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Scarlette? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Scarlette
Feminine · Old French roots · #1173 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Scarlettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Scarlette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Scarlette in 2025?
- Scarlette ranks #1173 among US girl names in 2025, with 197 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Scarlette?
- About 1 in every 8,159 US girls born in 2025 was named Scarlette — 197 in all.
- Will my child share the name Scarlette with classmates?
- Scarlette will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Scarlette
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leni#1173 · Elyana#1173 · Klover#1173 · Kassandra#1173 · Susanna#1173 · Carson#1173 · Dalilah#1173 · Aleyna#1173
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Scarlette? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Scarlette and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle