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She’s a vibrant name with a legendary literary namesake.
Thanks to Ivy for suggesting Scarlett as our Baby Name of the Day.
One of the many tales about Gone With the Wind involves the name of the novel’s heroine. Up until just before going to press, the story goes, Margaret Mitchell planned to call her heroine Pansy.
Mitchell had a last minute flash of inspiration, and you know the rest.
Up until then you might have met a Rose or a Hazel or an Olive; Pearl or Ruby, too. But Scarlett was rare. Scarlet appears as a masculine moniker on the US Census Indian rolls, especially in North Dakota. And because Scarlett is a surname, it does appear as a given name before Ms. Mitchell’s novel debuted – though those Scarletts are sometimes male, too.
In Gone With the Wind, Katie Scarlett O’Hara is named after her paternal grandmother, Katie Scarlett. Presumably that’s her grandma’s surname, indicating that one of their ancestors dyed or sold woolen cloth.
Scarlet cloth wasn’t necessarily red, but bright red was one of the most popular hues. Over time, the fabric’s name transferred to the color. The source of the word is likely the Persian saqirlat – fine cloth, from the Late Latin sigillatus – elaborately decorated clothes. Sigillatus shares roots with sigil – a magical symbol – and signal and sign.
If sigil to Scarlett seems like a leap, it is – in between, the word became scarlata in Late Latin; escarlate in Old French and Spanish and scarlatto in Italian.
It’s a color with a past:
- In the Book of Revelation, there’s a scarlet beast and a woman wearing scarlet;
- Scarlet fever ravaged communities into the early twentieth century;
- Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter links the color to a sin once more;
- Sherlock Holmes’ first adventure was 1888′s A Study in Scarlet. In this case, the color referred to “the scarlet thread of murder” in Holmes’ case;
- On a more heroic note, Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel set The Scarlet Pimpernel to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine at the height of the revolution.
Today, Scarlett remains a vivid shade of red and a dramatic name, but she’s lost her air of scandal.
As a name, Scarlett charted briefly from 1940 to 1943, and the height of Gone With the Wind. She surfaced again from 1962 to 1963, possibly due to short-lived Canadian soap opera Scarlett Hill.
But then came 1991′s Scarlett, the authorized sequel to Mitchell’s classic, penned by Alexandra Ripley. The novel was savaged by critics, but still topped the bestseller lists and was made into a can’t-miss-miniseries. The name returned in 1992, but this time she stayed. Why were the 90s different?
- Hugh Grant’s quirky red-headed roommate in Four Weddings and a Funeral answered to Scarlett;
- Young actress Scarlett Johansson – yes, that’s her real name – nabbed an Independent Spirit award nomination in 1996 and had her big breakout role in 2003′s Lost in Translation;
- Color, nature, and noun names are stylish today – even mainstream. Violet rose at the same time.
In 2010, Scarlett ranked #114. And why not? She’s colorful, spirited, and stylish. Her only downside? She’s climbing rapidly. If Savannah can reach #30, Miss O’Hara’s appellation surely can, too.
Scarlett was #27 in New South Wales last year, so she can definitely climb! Two celebrity babies already this year called Scarlett – Scarlett Tander and Scarlett Mitchell. You want Scarletts, we got Scarletts!
Definitely fits in with colour names like Sienna and Violet.
I remember going to school in the 80s and 90s with a girl named Teal. I have to admit Indigo is kind of growing on me too. Oh! I went to school with a Fawn too, in the colour name theme
I went to school in the 80s with a Cerise … I like the name Lavender!
I still see Teal being used a fair bit now; obviously had staying power.
Oh, I do like Indigo! Fawn reminds me of Brodie … which 80s political scandal was she attached to?
Lavender has potential – she’s in Harry Potter, too, isn’t she?
I also like Lilac, though I first heard the name on a cat!
Stephen Moyer (Bill from True Blood) has a daughter named Lilac. I absolutely love it. Scarlett is too sultry for me.
Abby – Fawn Hall helped Ollie North shred documents.
EXACTLY – thank you! Fawn Brodie was a biographer. I confuse her with Vaughn Bode in the Beastie Boys’ lyrics for “Sure Shot” – which is why, I think, she rattles around in my head.
Anne of Green Gables also has an older lady friend named Miss Lavender so the name Lavender might just be due for a revival
I know a Cerise too, now that you mention it.
I think Lilac is lovely …
I also went to school with a Fawn. I never, ever think of that as a color, only as an animal.
I very much dislike Scarlett. Scarlette is fine for a girl, and Scarlet is fine for a boy or girl, but the spelling Scarlett just makes my brain hurt.
Plus, I’m not a fan of GWTW at all, so that certainly makes it worse for me.
I couldn’t puzzle out how the -tt caught on, but I’m assuming it is one of those quirky surname things that Mitchell embraced – and we’ve all been following ever since.
Scarlet strikes me as incomplete, though I’m pretty sure it is the spelling of (yet another) S-name Sylvester Stallone gave to one of his daughters. And it has charted in recent years, at least for girls.
I’m a GWTW fan and I honestly didn’t know about the Pansy thing until just now (read the book ~ 15 times since I was 12, never seen the movie). Thank you! This may be a new record for my “learning something new every day” (1:28am in the ‘day’ LOL) resolution. I like the name Scarlett and I would rather run into one on the playground than McKenna/McKinley/McMyparentsaretryndee but I don’t see myself using it since I already have one kid with an “S” name (two if you count the small furry son, my kitten) and I’d rather mix things up a bit.
Scarlett was ranked 25 in the UK in 2009 and climbing at a rate of knots. More than one of my 6 1/2 year old daughter’s playmates is a Scarlett! I’m 99.9% certain Mitchell intended Scarlett as the surname of Katie Scarlett (the grandma). It was very common in the 19th C on both sides of the Altantic to bestow a grandparent’s name and surname on a child as their first and middle name – and not uncommon for the child then to be known by the former surname. The same thing happened to my grandmother; Caroline Gayther Trout (what a name!), who was named after her grandmother Caroline Gayther. My grandmother was always called Gayther (although she often got Gertie instead, as Gayther is hardly a familiar surname, never mind first name!). Although the color and surname share the same source, ‘scarlet’ didn’t come to mean ‘scarlet’ – iyswim – until the 15th C. Before then, it referred specifically to a type of cloth of scarlet color. The surname probably arose for someone who dealt in scarlet (the cloth) or wore it a lot! We got the color scarlet from the cloth, in the same way as we later got the color orange from oranges
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You’re absolutely right about the surname. I read GWTW obsessively in my tweens, and I kept thinking that her grandmother’s name must’ve been Katie Scarlett Smith or Katie Scarlett Jones. I was equally obsessed with Scarlett’s sisters’ names: Carreen, from Caroline Irene, and Suellen, from Susan Elinor. Great smooshes, both!
That’s so interesting! My mother and aunt are both named after a grandmother’s first and maiden names (Mary Bynum and Katherine Madigan, respectively). My grandmother told me that her dream was to have two girls and name them after the grandmothers. She must have been quite old-fashioned to do this during the mid-20th century.
I like Scarlett, think it’s more ” namey” than Scarlet and would definitely rather meet a Scarlett than yet another Morgan, even! It’s strictly middle name material for me, it’s a bit too brilliant a shade for me, personally. That and Violet’s a family name for me.
Other color names that appeal to me: Lavender, Lilac, Indigo, Moss & Plum. I have to ask, why do I see Lavendar quite often? It doesn’t even look right! anyone know what gives, there?
I think it’s just that some people don’t like names to look like ordinary nouns. We’re so used in the English Speaking world to names being considered a completely separate category that, apart from a handful of ‘established’ names taken straight from the dictionary, there’s even quite a lot of hostility towards them. The thinking may be that changing the word slightly in some way takes a name from the ranks of common nouns to proper ones…
Or perhaps some people just can’t spell ;D.
I went to school with a guy named Moss, it’s also considered a variant spelling of Moses
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A few weeks ago a family friend welcomed a daughter, Scarlett Apple.
Scarlet(t) is extremely trendy, and not really to my taste. It looks like a noun meaning “little scar”. I also can’t really separate it from the ‘scarlet woman’ association. As colour names go, I much prefer Violet (or Violeta or Violette) or Bianca.
I like how sassy Scarlett is. However, her popularity would make my shy away from using the name.
I like Scarlett. It’s vibrant and sassy. Although my taste in colour names runs more to the floral side (Rose and Violet), I can definintely get on the Scarlett bandwagon. My favourite colour name is Rose (which is also just my favourite name), and Grey (for a boy, or a mn for a girl) has been growing on me (Seraphina Grey, anyone?)
When I was around ten a new friend said to me, “I don’t like the name Charlotte, I think I’m going to call you Scarlett instead.” So for a short period of time I answered to Scarlett. Then there’s the occasional individual who thinks it’s funny to say something about “Charlotte, the scarlet harlot”.
I don’t mind the name — I do find it quite pretty — but it’s not my name and I don’t think I’ll ever use it. There’s a little Scarlett in one of Roseanna’s playgroups and I wouldn’t be surprised if I encounter more and more of them because I expect the name to continue to rise.
Another Scarlett of note is Miss Scarlett from Cluedo. That’s the British spelling of the name and the game (the version I grew up with). In North America she’s Miss Scarlet from Clue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo_characters#Miss_Scarlett
I’ve never understood the fawning love of GWTW, Scarlett was such a manipulative, selfish b***h and the Jim Crow era’s romanticism of the the Old South. I realize It’s considered a great love story, but I have trouble with the idea that people are naming their daughters after that character.
Along a different literary vein, there is a YA chick-lit novel called Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, that my 14 year old adored. Obviously, the protagonist is named Scarlett. With the growing popularity the name, maybe Miss O’Hara won’t always be my first thought, but I still don’t like the name.
Scarlett doesn’t do anything for me. It’s just another trendy surname, and I greatlyprefer names that have more than a century’s history of use. I can see really being the next big thing, though, and I bet it’ll at least be in the top 100 by next year. And of course that means in coming years it’ll sound extremely dated. So, definitely not for me. As for other color names… Saffron is a huge guilty pleasure of mine.
I like Saffron too, gently hippie vibe “I’m just mad about Saffron and Saffron’s mad about me…”
Gotta say, I liked the name Scarlett until I saw Gone With the Wind. Yikes! I would NOT want to name my daughter after her.
Overall though, I do like color names, but they don’t fit with my last name. Alas.
Popularity wasn’t a factor when we named our Scarlett, but I have to admit I feel a little twinge every time I see it in the “Most Searched” cloud on Nameberry. I guess I just have to remember that just because a name is popular doesn’t mean she’ll know a lot of girls with the same name.
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My younger sister is Scarlett Grace
I like the name.
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