Scarlet: Meaning of Baby Name Scarlet

About the Name Scarlet

Scarlet is a modern American spelling variant of Scarlett (see separate entry on Scarlett for the Old French escarlate etymology — referring originally to a rich, brilliant red dye/cloth that was prized in medieval European trade). The single-T Scarlet spelling is essentially a 21st-century American invention.

The two spellings (Scarlet and Scarlett) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying English word/name. The Scarlet spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a slightly less elaborate form than the historical Scarlett. The name's overwhelming cultural anchor is the iconic Scarlett O'Hara of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind (and its 1939 film adaptation, played by Vivien Leigh) — one of the most-iconic female characters of mid-20th-century American literature.

Scarlet has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. Notable contemporary bearers include American actress Scarlett Johansson (using the more popular Scarlett spelling, born 1984, the iconic American Oscar-nominated actress of Lost in Translation, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Black Widow, and Marriage Story); and various contemporary American influencers. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the strong Gone with the Wind Scarlett O'Hara literary cultural anchor and Scarlett Johansson modern Hollywood anchor, the in-built distinctive vivid-red color register, and the popular two-syllable -et ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to vintage-revival-meets-modern names. Common nicknames Scar (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Letty (back-end shortening), and the rare Carla each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Scarlett (the more popular form), Scarlet, and Scarlette have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Escarlata (Spanish), and the broader related Scarlet/Scarlett family.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Scarlet

5,642

English baby names in our dictionary

2,251

English female names

254

7-letter S-names in our dictionary

481

S-female names total

2006–2025

years of US SSA records (20 total)

13,869

total US births named Scarlet (all years)

US Popularity History (2006–2025)

📉 Falling fast: Scarlet dropped 62 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#448 in 2020 → #510 in 2025).

Annual US births named Scarlet by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2015 with 870 girls named Scarlet (girl rank #376 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #510 for girls (581 US births). That's 134 places below its 2015 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Scarlet Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Scarlet the strongest states are Maine, West Virginia, New Mexico.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Maine	#198	28
2	West Virginia	#253	40
3	New Mexico	#278	28
4	Nevada	#322	78
5	Utah	#325	146
6	Idaho	#330	42
7	Ohio	#355	312
8	Oregon	#371	99
9	Nebraska	#376	41
10	Indiana	#379	182

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Maryland	#657	87
2	Georgia	#621	160
3	Alabama	#591	82
4	Virginia	#566	136
5	Tennessee	#564	128
6	Florida	#562	295
7	North Carolina	#550	169
8	Illinois	#546	191
9	Mississippi	#544	19
10	South Carolina	#526	92

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Scarlet in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Scarlet?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

See all names like Scarlet →

Compare Scarlet to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Scarlet against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Scarlet vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Scarlet vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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