Violet (given name)

Violet is a female given name which comes from the eponymous flower. As with other such names, its popularity has varied dramatically over time. Flower names were commonly used from about 1880 through about 1910 in the United States, with usage dropping throughout the next 80 years or so; Violet was the 88th most frequent girls' given name in 1900, dropping below position 1000 by 1960. In 1990, the name appeared again in the top 1000 at position 289 and subsequently increased in popularity. It was the 20th most used name for newborn American girls in 2022. It rose rapidly in popularity for American girls born that year, one of several fashionable names that contain a letter v. In 2022, it was the 27th most popular name given to girls in Canada.

Violet

A white violet is said to signify candor in the language of flowers.
Pronunciation	/ˈvaɪələt/
Gender	Female
Origin
Meaning	"violet"

The cognates in other languages are Viola, Violeta, Violetta, or Violette. These are common girls' given names, whose popularity varies by time and country.

Name variants

• Violet – English
• Violette – French, English
• Violetta – Italian, Belgian, Dutch
• Viola – Latin, English, Italian, German, Swedish
• Violeta – Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian, Lithuanian, Albanian
• Виолета / Violeta – Serbian
• Виолета (Violeta) – Bulgarian
• Віолетта (Violetta) or Віолета (Violeta) - Ukrainian
• Виолетта (Violetta) or Виолета (Violeta) – Russian
• Βιολέττα (Violetta) or Βιολέτα (Violeta) – Greek
• Wioleta, Wiola, Wioletta or Violetta – Polish
• Ia - Hebrew

People

• Violet Aitken (1886–1987), British suffragette who was force-fed
• Violet Alva (1908–1969), Indian lawyer, politician and deputy chair of the Rajya Sabha, and Indian National Congress member
• Violet Archer (1913–2000), Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, organist, and percussionist
• Violet Astor (1889–1965), English aristocrat
• Violet Attlee (1895–1964), English wife of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee
• Violet Barclay (1922–2010), American illustrator
• Violet Barungi (born 1943), Ugandan writer and editor
• Violet Benson (born 1988), Russian-born American Internet personality
• Violet Berlin (born 1968), British television presenter, producer and scriptwriter
• Violet Bidwill Wolfner (1900–1962), owner of the Chicago / St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL)
• Violet Blue (author), American writer and sex educator
• Violet Brown (1900–2017), Jamaican supercentenarian
• Violet Brunton (1878–1951), English artist
• Violet Bonham Carter (1887–1969), British politician and diarist
• Violet Cameron (1862–1919), English actress and singer
• Violet Carson (1898–1983), British actress of radio and television, and a singer and pianist
• Violet Chachki, American drag queen, burlesque dancer, recording artist, TV personality, and model
• Violet Cliff (1916–2003), British pair skater
• Violet Dandridge (1878–1956), American scientific illustrator, painter, naturalist, and suffragist
• Violet Dickson (1896–1991), wife of British colonial administrator H. R. P. Dickson
• Violet M. Digby (1900–1960), British artist
• Violet Douglas-Pennant (1869–1945), British philanthropist and supporter of local government
• Violet Duca, Turkish volleyball player and manager
• Violet Elton (died 1969), English badminton player
• Violet Englefield (1881–1946), British actress and singer
• Violet Fane, pen name of Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie (1843–1905), British poet, writer, and ambassadress
• Violet Farebrother (1888–1969), English film actress
• Violet Gibson (1876–1956), Irish aristocrat, attempted assassin of Benito Mussolini
• Violet Gillett (1898–1996), Canadian painter and educator
• Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872–1948), British musician
• Violet Graham (1890–1967), English stage and film actress
• Violet Hackbarth (1919–1988), American baseball player
• Violet Hamilton (1949–2014), photographer who lived and worked in Australia, the US, and the UK
• Violet Heming (1895–1981), English stage and screen actress
• Violet Henry-Anderson (1882–1935), Scottish-born golfer and partner of poet Elsa Gidlow
• Violet Herbert, Countess of Powis (1865–1929), British peer
• Violet Hopkins (born 1973), American painter
• Violet Hopson (1887–1973), British actress
• Violet Hunt (1862–1942), British writer
• Violet Rosemary Strachan Hutton (1925–2004), Scottish geophysicist and pioneer of magnetotellurics
• Violet Jacob (1863–1946), Scottish writer
• Violet Jessop (1887–1971), Argentine survivor of three shipwrecks
• Violet Annie Lee (1909–1982), mother of the Kray twins
• Violet Kajubiri, former General Secretary of the Wildlife Clubs of Uganda, and sister of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni
• Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917–2007), Japanese American poet, composer, and translator of haiku
• Violet Kemble-Cooper (1886–1961), British stage and film actress
• Violet King Henry (1929–1982), Canadian lawyer
• Violet Knights (1894–1973), American silent film actress
• Violet La Plante (1908–1984), American silent film actress
• Violet Loraine (1886–1956), English actress and singer
• Violet MacMillan (1887–1953), American actress
• Violet Makuto (born 1993), Kenyan volleyball player
• Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland (1856–1937), British artist and noblewoman
• Violet Markham (1872–1959), British writer and social reformer
• Violet May Cottrell (1887–1971), New Zealand writer, poet, and spiritualist
• Violet Melnotte (1855–1935), British stage performer, actress-manager, and theatre owner
• Violet Mersereau (1892–1975), American stage and film actress
• Violet Milner, Viscountess Milner (1872–1958), English Edwardian society lady, and editor of the political monthly, National Review
• Violet Milstead (1919–2014), Canadian aviator
• Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett (1867–1945), British humanitarian and activist
• Violet Mount, Australian soprano
• Violet Myers (1875–1943), classical singer and the wife of British diplomat William Algernon Churchill
• Violet Needham (1876–1967), English author
• Violet Neilson, Jamaican politician
• Violet Florence Martin (1862–1915), Irish writer
• Violet Oaklander (1927–2021), American child therapist and author
• Violet Oakley (1874–1961), American artist
• Violet Odogwu, Nigerian track and field athlete
• Violet Olney (1911–1999), English athlete
• Violet Owen (1902–1998), British tennis and hockey player
• Violet Palmer (born 1964), American basketball referee in the NBA and WNBA
• Violet Philpott (1922–2012), English puppeteer and author
• Violet Piercy (1889–1972), English long-distance runner
• Violet Pinckney (1871–1955), English tennis player
• Violet Plummer (1873–1962), South Australian medical doctor
• Violet Powell (1912–2002), British writer and critic
• Violet Richardson Ward (1888–1978), founder of the Berkeley Women's Gymnasium
• Violet Roche (1885–1967), New Zealand journalist and welfare worker
• Violet Romer (1886–1970), American dancer
• Violet Ryley (1884–1949), Canadian dietitian
• Violet Skies, Welsh singer-songwriter
• Violet Sleigh (born 1935), the first Miss Malaya
• Violet Smith, American female jockey
• Violet Teague (1872–1951), Australian artist
• Violet Tillard (1874–1922), suffragette, nurse, pacifist, conscientious objector supporter, famine relief worker, and Quaker
• Violet Trefusis (1894–1972), English writer and socialite
• Violet Tweedale (1862–1936), Scottish author, poet, and spiritualist
• Violet Van der Elst (1882–1966), British entrepreneur and campaigner best known for activities against the death penalty
• Violet Vanbrugh (1867–1942), English actress
• Violet Vimpany (1886–1979), Australian painter and etcher
• Violet Walrond (1905–1996), New Zealand swimmer
• Violet Wattenberg (born 1978), Netherlands international cricketer
• Violet Webb (1915–1999), English track and field athlete
• Violet Wegner (1887–1960), British singer
• Violet Whiteman (1873–1952), English-born New Zealand artist
• Violet Wilkey (1903–1976), American child actress
• Violet Winspear (1928–1989), British writer
• Violet Wood (1899–2012), British supercentenarian
• Violet Yong Wui Wui (born 1977), Malaysian lawyer and politician

Fictional characters

• Violet, on the American sketch comedy TV series Don't Look Now
• Daisy, Lily, and Violet, Kanto Gym Leaders in Pokémon and Misty's sisters
• Violet, one of the Thea Sisters from China in Thea Stilton
• Violet (comics), a DC Comics character
• Violet, the title character from the musical
• Violet, one of the five main characters in the Winterborne Home series by Ally Carter
• Lee Chaolan or Violet, a Tekken 4 character
• Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, a character on Downton Abbey
• Violet Gamart, in Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop (1978)
• Violet Gibson, in the book series Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
• Violet Gray, a Peanuts character
• Violet Baudelaire, an A Series of Unfortunate Events character
• Violet Beauregarde, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
• Violet Bridgerton, Dowager Lady Bridgerton, mother of the Bridgerton children in Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series
• Violet Evergarden, the protagonist of Kana Akatsuki's Violet Evergarden (2015)
• Violet Finn, from the American ABC soap opera, General Hospital
• Violet Harmon, an American Horror Story: Murder House character
• Violet Highway, an EastEnders character
• Violet Parr, a The Incredibles character
• Violet Song jat Shariff, an UltraViolet character
• Violet Turner, a Private Practice character
• Violet Weiler, from Fred Mustard Stewart's novel Ellis Island, also on the TV miniseries of the same name
• Violet Wilson, from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street

Equivalents from other cultures

The floral-inspired name is present in other cultures. Examples include:

• Sumire (Japanese)
• Calfuray (Mapuche)
• Ibolya (Hungarian)
• Viola (Italian; diminutive Violetta)
• Violeta (Romanian)
• Wiola (Polish; variants Wioleta, Wioletta)
• Sigal (Hebrew)