Violet

English from Latin
"purple"

Violet Origin and Meaning

The name Violet is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "purple".

Violet is soft and sweet, yet with a vivacious edge. Today, Violet is the top flower name for girls, outranking Lily and Iris in the Top 100, and the second most popular color name for girls after Scarlett.

The violet is a delicate, sweet-smelling spring flower, associated with faithfulness and modesty, and also the seventh color of the rainbow, named after the flower’s vivid purple hue.

A name that dozed quietly for decades, Violet was popular a hundred years ago, then began its steep descent, bottoming out in the early 1980s. But it started rising again in the late 1990s and climbed even more sharply after Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck chose it for their daughter in 2005.

It is now well-used by celebrity parents, including the daughters of Christina Milian, Emily Strayer, Nathan Followill, Dave Grohl, and Emily Blunt.

In children’s literature, Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does it no favors, but Violet Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate EventsThe Incredibles, have helped to redeem it for today’s parents.

Violet is also the first name of Dowager Bridgerton, the matricarch in the show Bridgerton, a reminder of the name’s genteel, vintage side.

International variations of Violet include Viola, as in the heroine of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, French Violette, and snappy Violeta and Violetta.

# 16 in the US

Violet Rank in US Top 1000

# 6 on Nameberry

Violet Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Violet Popularity

Famous People Named Violet

  • (Helen) Violet Bonham Carter
    "Violet Asquith", British politician
  • Violet Oakley
    American muralist
  • Violet Tucker
    English actress
  • Violet Blue
    American author and journalist
  • Violet Berlin
    British TV presenter
  • Violet Florence Martin
    Irish novelist
  • Violet Kate Gordon
    Woodhouse, English harpsichordist
  • (Isobel) Violet Hunt
    English novelist and salonist
  • Violet Hopson
    Australian,British actress
  • Violet Mary Loraine
    English actress and singer
  • Violet MacMillan
    American stage and silent film actress
  • Violet Rosa Markham
    English feminist author
  • Violet Mersereau
    American actress
  • Violet Trefusis
    English novelist and socialite
  • Violet Augusta Mary Vanbrugh
    American actress; sister of actress Irene Vanbrugh
  • Violet Louise Wilkey
    American silent film actress
  • Violett Beane
    American actress
  • Violet Chachki
    stage name of Jason Dardo, American drag queen ("RuPaul's Drag Race")
  • Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy
    Erskine Jacob, Scottish novelist
  • Violet Mary Elliot
    Murray,Kynynmound Astor, English socialite
  • Violet Hilton
    English conjoined twin performer; twin of sister Daisy Hilton
  • Violet Ramis (b. 1977)
    daughter of actor Harold Ramis
  • Violet Jean Leitch (b. 2004)
    daughter of model Kirsty Hume and actor Donovan Leitch, Jr.
  • Violet Anne Affleck (b. 2005)
    daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner
  • Violet Maye Grohl (b. 2006)
    daughter of musician Dave Grohl
  • Violet Buckland (b. 2007)
    daughter of guitarist Jonny Buckland of Coldplay
  • Violet Madison Nash (b. 2010)
    daughter of actress Christina Milian and rapper The Dream
  • Violet Marlowe Followill (b. 2012)
    daughter of musicians Nathan Followill and Jessie Baylin
  • Violet Isabel Strayer (b. 2012)
    daughter of musician Emily Robison
  • Violet Grace Devereux Sanford (b. 2013)
    daughter of actress Poppy Montgomery and Shawn Sanford
  • Violet Rachael Miziner (b. 2013)
    daughter of beauty queen/TV personality Rachael Finch and dancer Michael Miziner
  • Violet Boswell
    daughter of soccer player Bobby Boswell
  • Violet Moon Howey (b. 2015)
    daughter of actress Sarah Shahi and Steve Howey; twin of brother Knox Blue Howey
  • Violet Krasinski (b. 2016)
    daughter of actors John Krasinski and Emily Blunt
  • Violet Rae (b. 2016)
    daughter of actress Marisa Ramirez
  • Violet Storm de Florio (b. 2016)
    daughter of ballerina Ashley Bouder and Peter de Florio
  • Violet Skye Lazan (b. 2019)
    daughter of singer Rachel Platten and Kevin Lazan

Violet in Pop Culture

  • Violet Crawley
    Dowager Countess of Grantham, character on TV series Downton Abbey
  • Violet Beauregarde
    character in book/film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
  • Violet Baudelaire
    character in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
  • Violet Evergarden
    character in the TV show Violet Evergarden and in light novels by Akatsuki Kana
  • Violet Milovníci
    character in Kresley Cole's "The Arcana Chronicles"
  • Violet Bridgerton
    mother in Julia Quinn's Bridgerton romance series
  • Violet Alden
    character in the Boxcar Children series
  • Violet Markey
    character in "All the Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
  • Violet Parr
    character in Pixar's "The Incredibles"
  • Violet Parr
    character in "Mean Girls 2"
  • Violet Sabrewing
    character in "DuckTales"
  • Violet Anne Bickerstaff
    Screech's girlfriend on TV's 'Saved By the Bell'
  • Violet Turner
    character on TV's "Private Practice"
  • Violet Nottingham
    character in film "Bedtime Stories"
  • Violet
    character in Cuba 15
  • Violet/Jennifer
    character in book "The Cellar"
  • Violet
    character in The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
  • Violet Travilla
    character in the Mildred Keith series
  • Violet Harmon
    from the television series American Horror Story
  • Violet Bick
    character in film "It's a Wonderful Life"
  • Violet Durn
    character in novel "Feed"
  • Violet Velvet
    one of the fairies from TV series "Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom"
  • Violet Newstead
    character in film "9 to 5"