Violet
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "purple flower".
Roughly 95,791 people in the United States go by the first name Violet, which ranks #15 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Violet today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Violet births was 2024 (6,977 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Kara (95,659).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Violet. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Violet with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Violet is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 284 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
96K
~ 1 in 3,578 Americans
Peak year
2024
6,977 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15
Tracked since 1880
Census
Violet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 72,515 people with the first name Violet, which placed it at #708 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#708
National first-name rank
People counted
73K
72,515 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
24.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Violet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Violet is White at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.7%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Violet described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Violet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.2% · 50,193
- Hispanic or Latino15.7% · 11,351
- Two or more races5.8% · 4,195
- Black or African American5.7% · 4,162
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 1,874
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 740
Gender
Gender distribution for Violet
Out of the 178,257 babies given the name Violet since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Violet as a male name
- Ranked #14,088 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1928 (16 births)
Violet as a female name
- Ranked #15 in 2024
- 6,972 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (6,972 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Violet appears almost entirely female. Of the 72,518 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Violet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Violet from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 41,599 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Violet remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Violet by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Violet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Violets live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Violet, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,185 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Violet
The name Violet has its origins in the Latin word "viola", which means the violet flower. The name likely came into use during the late Middle Ages or Renaissance period in Western Europe, as the rise of botanicals and nature names became more popular.
Violet was initially a feminine given name inspired by the delicate purple flower. The earliest recorded example of the name dates back to the 16th century in England. One of the first notable individuals named Violet was Violet Beauchamp (1693-1719), an English aristocrat and relative of Oliver Cromwell.
In literature, the name appears in Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, where a character named Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario. This play, written around 1601, likely helped popularize the name Violet in England during the Elizabethan era.
During the 19th century, the name gained wider usage across Europe and North America. Some historical figures named Violet include Violet Trefusis (1894-1972), an English writer and mistress of Vita Sackville-West, and Violet Jessop (1887-1971), an Argentine-British ocean liner stewardess who survived the sinkings of the Titanic and Britannic.
In the United States, one of the earliest prominent individuals named Violet was Violet Oakley (1874-1961), an American artist and writer known for her murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol building. Another notable Violet was Violet Sommers (1890-1975), an American actress and vaudeville performer during the early 20th century.
The name Violet also has connections to royalty. Violet Constance Jessie (1876-1962) was a member of the British royal family, being a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Additionally, Princess Violette of Bavaria (1891-1936) was a member of the Bavarian royal family and a philanthropist.
People
Violet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Violet as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Violet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Violet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 95,791 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Violet going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,578 US residents.
Is Violet a common name?
We classify Violet as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 178,257 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Violet most popular?
The single biggest year for Violet was 2024, when 6,977 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Violet is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Violet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 72,515 people with the name Violet, or 24.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #708 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Violet in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Violet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Violet appears almost entirely female. Of the 72,518 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Violet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Violet is White at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.7%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Violet most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Violet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.2% (50,193 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Violet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Violet a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Violet in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Violet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Violet in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Violet can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Violet?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Violet, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.