How popular is the baby name Scarlett in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Scarlett.

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Popularity of the baby name Scarlett


Posts that mention the name Scarlett

Biggest changes in girl name popularity, 2010

For the last few years, the SSA has re-ordered the top 500 (or so) baby names according to rank change.

I decided to do the same sort of analysis, but change two things. First, I focused on the number of babies instead of on rankings. Second, I looked at the entire list, not just the top 500.

Needless to say, these lists and the SSA’s lists look pretty different. :)

The girl names that increased and decreased the most in terms of usage are below. The boy names will be in the next post.

Biggest Increases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Sophia, +3608 babies (rank change: 4th to 2nd)
  2. Khloe, +1926 (95th to 42nd)
  3. Zoey, +1183 (75th to 47th)
  4. Charlotte, +1143 (68th to 45th)
  5. Zoe, +1080 (47th to 31st)
  6. Maci, +892 (655th to 232nd)
  7. Stella, +856 (126th to 85th)
  8. Scarlett, +781 (170th to 114th)
  9. Amelia, +739 (55th to 41st)
  10. Harper, +703 (172nd to 119th)
  11. Layla, +668 (45th to 37th)
  12. Ellie, +662 (145th to 104th)
  13. Kinley, +660 (452nd to 231st)
  14. Quinn, +637 (487th to 253rd)
  15. Tenley, +609 (2985th to 458th)
  16. Sofia, +602 (36th to 26th)
  17. Annabelle, +572 (156th to 117th)
  18. Bella, +566 (58th to 48th)
  19. Camila, +555 (80th to 61st)
  20. Hadley, +544 (363rd to 216th)

Biggest Decreases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Madison, -2111 babies (rank change: 7th to 8th)
  2. Alexis, -1712 (13th to 16th)
  3. Taylor, -1700 (22nd to 36th)
  4. Ashley, -1517 (20th to 27th)
  5. Sarah, -1502 (21st to 30th)
  6. Samantha, -1282 (15th to 15th)
  7. Kaylee, -1145 (26th to 35th)
  8. Emily, -1123 (6th to 6th)
  9. Brooke, -1106 (54th to 72nd)
  10. Brianna, -1101 (24th to 29th)
  11. Alyssa, -1001 (19th to 20th)
  12. Valeria, -977 (72nd to 94th)
  13. Kaitlyn, -926 (67th to 90th)
  14. Madelyn, -898 (59th to 76th)
  15. Destiny, -885 (57th to 71st)
  16. Mia, -841 (10th to 10th)
  17. Elizabeth, -834 (11th to 12th)
  18. Marley, -830 (149th to 234th)
  19. Kayla, -795 (35th to 43rd)
  20. Lauren, -755 (46th to 58th)

Did you notice that a few of the above (Samantha, Emily, Mia) were big winners/losers according to the numbers, and yet their rankings stayed the same? Tricky.

How did “Gone with the Wind” influence baby names?

The character Melanie Hamilton (played by Olivia de Havilland) from the movie "Gone with the Wind" (1939).
Melanie from “Gone with the Wind“

We already know that Gone with the Wind had an effect on the usage of Scarlett and Tara. But what other baby names did it influence?

The main character, Scarlett O’Hara, had sisters named Suellen (a contraction of “Susan Elinor”) and Carreen (“Caroline Irene”). She also had a a sister-in-law named Melanie Hamilton. All three of these names were given a double-boost by Gone with the Wind — first, after the release of the book in mid-1936, and, second, after the release of the film in late 1939.

Suellen

Here’s the U.S. usage of the name Suellen. (In the movie, the character was played by actress Evelyn Keyes.)

  • 1942: 144 baby girls named Suellen
  • 1941: 159 baby girls named Suellen [peak]
  • 1940: 141 baby girls named Suellen
  • 1939: 40 baby girls named Suellen
  • 1938: 31 baby girls named Suellen
  • 1937: 30 baby girls named Suellen
  • 1936: 5 baby girls named Suellen [debut]
  • 1935: unlisted
  • 1934: unlisted

The name saw peak usage in 1941 — also the year that variant form Sueellen debuted. After that, usage petered out.

Carreen

Here’s the U.S. usage of the name Carreen. (In the movie, the character was played by actress Ann Rutherford.)

  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: 8 baby girls named Carreen
  • 1940: 6 baby girls named Carreen
  • 1939: unlisted
  • 1938: unlisted
  • 1937: 8 baby girls named Carreen [debut]
  • 1936: unlisted
  • 1935: unlisted
  • 1934: unlisted

The name Carreen appeared in the data a few more times in the ’60s and ’70s, but that’s it. Interestingly, the variant form Careen, which debuted in 1936, has seen more usage in the U.S. overall.

Melanie

Here’s the U.S. usage of the name Melanie from the mid-’30s to the early ’40s. (In the movie, the character was played by actress Olivia de Havilland.)

  • 1942: 388 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1941: 308 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1940: 200 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1939: 57 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1938: 53 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1937: 39 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1936: 13 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1935: 9 baby girls named Melanie
  • 1934: 9 baby girls named Melanie

The name Melanie is quite old — it comes from an ancient Greek word meaning “black” or “dark” — but its usage was revived by Gone with the Wind. It went on to crack the top 100 for the first time in 1968 and has been popular ever since. It ranked 82nd in 2010.

What popularized the baby name Tara?

Tara, the plantation from the movie "Gone with the Wind" (1939).
Tara, the plantation from “Gone with the Wind“

The heroine of the book Gone with the Wind (1936), Katie Scarlett O’Hara, was originally called Pansy O’Hara.

And that’s not the only name change that author Margaret Mitchell made before her book was published.

She also changed the name of Scarlett’s stately home, originally called Fontenoy Hall, to Tara — after Ireland’s Hill of Tara.

What happened to the baby name Tara after the movie version of Gone with the Wind came out in 1939? It immediately debuted on the baby name charts:

  • 1941: 14 baby girls named Tara
  • 1940: 13 baby girls named Tara
  • 1939: 7 baby girls named Tara [debut]
  • 1938: unlisted
  • 1937: unlisted

Usage continued to rise through the ’40s and ’50s. And, thanks to television, it was given two big boosts in the late ’60s and early ’70s — one from The Avengers character Tara King (on the show from 1968 to 1969), the other from soap opera All My Children character Tara Martin (introduced in 1970).

  • 1973: 6,706 baby girls named Tara (rank: 37th)
  • 1972: 7,230 baby girls named Tara (rank: 38th)
  • 1971: 6,327 baby girls named Tara (rank: 50th)
  • 1970: 5,334 baby girls named Tara (rank: 69th)
  • 1969: 3,519 baby girls named Tara (rank: 107th)
  • 1968: 2,184 baby girls named Tara (rank: 147th)
  • 1967: 1,290 baby girls named Tara (rank: 229th)

Tara landed inside the top 40 six different times during the 1970s, far surpassing the popularity of Scarlett, which couldn’t even make the top 1,000 that decade.

But, as with all fads, after the rise comes the fall. Tara was out of the top 100 by the early ’90s. It ranked 775th in 2010, and could drop out of the top 1,000 entirely within the next few years.

Source: Walker, Marianne. Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind. Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishers, 2011.

What popularized the baby name Scarlett?

The character Scarlett O'Hara (played by Vivien Leigh) from the movie "Gone with the Wind" (1939).
Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone with the Wind” (1939)

The baby name Scarlett is currently within spitting distance of the top 100, thanks in large part to actress Scarlett Johansson.

What put it on the map originally, though, was Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind (1936).

Did you know that Katie Scarlett O’Hara was nearly named Pansy? It’s true. Scarlett might never have become a baby name at all had Margaret Mitchell not decided, months after her book was accepted for publication, to change the character’s name from Pansy to Scarlett. She explained:

The name Scarlett was chosen six months after my book was sold….I submitted nearly a hundred names to my publishers and they chose Scarlett,–I may add it was my choice too.

Other names under consideration were Robin, Kells, Storm and Angel.

What made her settle on Scarlett?

As to why I chose the name of Scarlett — first, because I came across the name of Katie Scarlett so often in Irish literature and so I made it Gerald’s Mother’s maiden name. Second, while I of course knew of the Scarlett family on our Georgia Coast, I could find no record of any family named Scarlett in Clayton County between the years 1859 and 1873.

The surname originally denoted a maker or seller of a bright (often red-colored) woolen cloth called scarlet.

How many babies were named Scarlett following the book’s publication?

  • 1939: 7 baby girls named Scarlett
  • 1938: 6 baby girls named Scarlett
  • 1937: 7 baby girls named Scarlett [debut]
  • 1936: unlisted
  • 1935: unlisted

Of course, the film version of Gone with the Wind, released at the very end of 1939, is what really gave the name a boost:

  • 1945: 34 baby girls named Scarlett
  • 1944: 45 baby girls named Scarlett
  • 1943: 68 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 964th)
  • 1942: 76 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 901st)
  • 1941: 77 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 828th)
  • 1940: 59 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 943rd)

In the movie, Scarlett was played by actress Vivien Leigh. (The name Vivien saw a spike in usage in 1940 as well.)

The name Scarlett slowly picked up steam over the following decades and, by the end of the century, several hundred baby girls were being named Scarlett every year.

When Scarlett Johansson emerged on the scene in the early 2000s, usage of the name and its variants (Scarlet, Scarlette, Scarleth, Escarlet, Escarleth, Escarlett) increased at a much faster rate:

  • 2010: 2,716 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 115th)
  • 2009: 1,921 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 170th)
  • 2008: 1,621 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 211th)
  • 2007: 1,583 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 218th)
  • 2006: 1,116 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 297th)
  • 2005: 733 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 423rd)
  • 2004: 538 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 528th)
  • 2003: 327 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 759th)
  • 2002: 290 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 806th)
  • 2001: 237 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 938th)
  • 2000: 227 baby girls named Scarlett (rank: 942nd)

Do you think any of the other names Mitchell considered — Pansy, Robin, Kells, Storm, Angel — would have made a better character name? Do you think any of them could have caught on as a baby name the way Scarlett did?

Sources:

  • Bates, Karen Grigsby. “Shrewd, Selfish Scarlett: A Complicated Heroine.” NPR 28 Jan. 2008.
  • Walker, Marianne. Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind. Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishers, 2011.

Other Gone with the Wind posts: Tara, Suellen, Carreen, Melanie