Violet
Feminine · “The violet flower”
Violet is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 185,561 girls against 284 boys since 1880.
Violet is the English flower name that came from Latin viola by way of the Old French diminutive violette, and it has been in steady use since the Middle Ages — especially in Scotland, where records show it centuries before the Victorian flower-name fashion made it fashionable across the English-speaking world. It is one of the few names that is also a color, a plant, and a word people say without thinking. Two syllables or three, depending on how quickly you say it.
How old is the name Violet?
Violet was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Violet alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 107,000 people named Violet are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Violet most popular?
Violet peaked in 2025, reaching #13 nationally. Today it ranks #13, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Viola to Violet
The story of Violet
The Latin viola named the flower; Old French turned it into violette, the little violet, and English took it as Violet. Scots records carry it early and often, from the late medieval period onward, well before English parents took to naming daughters after blossoms. The nineteenth-century vogue for flower names — Rose, Lily, Daisy — swept Violet along with it on both sides of the Atlantic. It has been in continuous use in English ever since, and the Latin form Viola traveled its own separate road through Italian and German.
Meaning
The violet flower; also the color
From Latin viola, the flower, through Old French violette, a small violet.
Cultural footprint
Violet Jessop (b. 1887) — Ocean-liner nurse who survived the sinkings of both the Titanic and the Britannic
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Viola
- violette
- Violet
Related forms: Violette · Violeta · Violetta · Viola · Violeta · Wioletta
Pronouncing Violet
VY-uh-lit
Stress on the first syllable. Many speakers compress the middle vowel to two syllables, VY-lit, which is normal and unremarkable in English.
Nicknames for Violet
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20257,546 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #13reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +16.5%7,546 in 2025, from 6,477
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.
Violet in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Violette in French — same name
- Violeta in Spanish — same name
- Violetta in Italian — related form
- Viola in Italian, German, Hungarian — related form
- Violeta in Romanian, Bulgarian — same name
- Wioletta in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Violets among us
people named Violet are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 213 born in 2025 was named Violet
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 Cheryl test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Violet's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cheryl climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cheryl's path sketches the road Violet is walking now.
Violet is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Violet is headed
Violet 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.
Violet beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Violet in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling everyone in the US already knows, because it is also an ordinary English word — rarely needs to be spelled out loud.
- Recognizable across French, Spanish, Italian, German and several Slavic languages through Violette, Violeta, Violetta and Viola.
- An unbroken record in English and Scots going back centuries, so it reads as inherited rather than newly coined.
- Established short forms in genuine historical use, chiefly Vi, so the name is not locked to its full length.
- Charts in Canada, England and Wales, and Scotland as well as the US, which travels well for families with ties abroad.
- It is climbing quickly, so a Violet born now is far more likely to share her name in class than one born a generation ago. Worth knowing if you want something rarely doubled.
- Violet, Viola and Violeta are close enough that people who know one will sometimes reach for the wrong one, particularly in mixed-language families.
- It is occasionally misheard as Violent over a phone or a loudspeaker — a passing nuisance rather than a real problem, and one the written name never has.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Violet 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 Violet? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Violet
Feminine · #13 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Violets are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 107,000 people named Violet are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Violet in 2025?
- Violet ranks #13 among US girl names in 2025, with 7,546 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Violet?
- About 1 in every 213 US girls born in 2025 was named Violet — 7,546 in all.
- Will my child share the name Violet with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 9 classrooms will have a child named Violet.
Ranked beside Violet
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ailany#14 · Eleanor#12 · Ava#11 · Aurora#15 · Eliana#10 · Harper#16 · Sofia#9 · Elizabeth#17
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Violet? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Violet 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.
Or jump into a head-to-head
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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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