Viola
Feminine · “violet (the flower)”
Viola is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 132,993 girls against 434 boys since 1880.
Viola is the Latin word for the violet, and it arrived in English as a name largely through Shakespeare, who gave it to the shipwrecked heroine of Twelfth Night at the turn of the seventeenth century. It is three open syllables with nothing hard in them, and it has been spelled exactly this way, in several languages, for centuries.
How old is the name Viola?
Viola was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Viola alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 23,000 people named Viola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Viola most popular?
Viola peaked in 1908, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #1013, 971 places below that high. See the whole 1908 chart.
Where it comes from
From Latin viola (violet) to Viola
The story of Viola
The word is plain Latin: viola, a violet. As a personal name it was already in use in Italy in the late Middle Ages, alongside Violante and Violetta, and it traveled north with the general European taste for flower names. English readers met it chiefly in Twelfth Night, written around 1601, where Viola washes ashore in Illyria and spends the play in disguise; the name has been in steady English-language use ever since. In the United States it was part of the great flower-name wave that also brought Violet, Rose and Lily onto the charts, and it has been recorded here without interruption from the earliest years of the record onward.
Meaning
violet (the flower)
Latin viola, the violet — the same word that gives English violet and Italian Violetta. The stringed instrument is spelled the same but reaches us by a separate route, from medieval Latin vitula, the ancestor of fiddle.
How the name formed
- Latin violaviolet
- Violamedieval Italian
- Violetta
- Violet
Related forms: Viola · Viola · Viola · Viola · Wiola · Violetta
Pronouncing Viola
vy-OH-la
Also said VY-uh-la in English, and vee-OH-la by speakers who reach for the instrument first. Italian and Hungarian keep the stress on the first syllable: VYAW-la, VEE-o-la. Any of these is defensible; it helps to pick one and say it the same way at introductions.
Nicknames for Viola
Moderate
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19184,331 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 1908
- Change vs 2022
- −0.8%247 in 2025, from 249
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.
Viola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Viola in Italian — same name
- Viola in Hungarian — same name
- Viola in German — same name
- Viola in Swedish — same name
- Wiola in Polish — spelling variant
- Violetta in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Violas among us
people named Viola are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,507 born in 2025 was named Viola
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Viola 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 Viola is headed
Viola should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Viola beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Viola in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling, used unchanged in Italian, German, Hungarian and Swedish, so it travels without translation or correction.
- A documented literary anchor in Twelfth Night, which keeps the name findable and familiar even where it is rarely given.
- A meaning that is settled and easy to explain in one word: violet.
- Vi has served as its short form for generations, giving a ready informal option without inventing one.
- It shares its spelling with the stringed instrument, so expect musical remarks and expect some people to say vee-OH-la on sight.
- Viola and Violet get swapped constantly in speech and on forms, especially where Violet is the more familiar of the two.
- It is strongly represented among older generations in the US, which for some families is the whole appeal and for others makes it read as a great-grandmother's name.
- A child with this name will likely be the only one in her school — pleasant most days, and it does mean saying the name twice on first meeting.
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What they receive
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Viola
Feminine · #1013 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Violas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,000 people named Viola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Viola in 2025?
- Viola ranks #1013 among US girl names in 2025, with 247 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Viola?
- About 1 in every 6,507 US girls born in 2025 was named Viola — 247 in all.
- Will my child share the name Viola with classmates?
- Viola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Viola
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Belle#1013 · Cynthia#1013 · Meera#1016 · Beverly#1016 · Marjorie#1016 · Yusra#1016 · Agnes#1016 · Artemis#1016
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Viola? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Viola and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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