Violet

The name Violet is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "purple". Violet is soft and sweet but far from shrinking. The Victorian Violet, one of the prettiest of the color and flower names, was chosen by high-profile parents Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, definitely a factor in its rapid climb to popularity. Violet cracked into the Top 50 for the first time ever in 2015. A name that dozed quietly for decades, Violet was popular a hundred years ago, then began its steep descent by 1920, bottoming out in the early 1980s. But it started rising again about a decade ago and climbed even more sharply after Garner and Affleck chose it for their daughter. Today, Violet is near the top of the charts, joining other such popular flower names as Lily, Daisy, and Rose. Viola is the Italian and Scandinavian version, used by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Violetta is the frillier, more operatic version. Violet is a particular favorite of both children's book authors and Hollywood celebs-- Violet Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also Violet Parr in the animated film The Incredibles; other well-known Violet moms and dads include Emily Robison, Christina Milian, Poppy Montgomery, Nathan Followill, Balthazar Getty and Dave Grohl Trivia tidbit: In France the violet was worn by the followers of Napoleon when he was in exile to show their allegiance to him.