Scarlet

About Scarlet

Scarlet is an English colour name with an older textile history. It can also be a spelling variant of Scarlett, a surname originally associated with making or selling scarlet cloth. Its vivid red meaning gives it an immediate visual identity, while literature supplies several distinct cultural connections.

From cloth to colour

In medieval English, scarlet referred to a rich, high-quality fabric. The cloth was often bright red, but red was not originally essential to the word’s meaning. Over time the colour became the dominant association.

The English word came through Old French escarlate. Its earlier history is disputed, with both Middle Eastern and Germanic explanations proposed. The secure part of the story is the movement from a valuable textile to the familiar red colour.

Scarlett developed as a surname for someone who made or sold this cloth. Scarlet as a given name can therefore come through the surname family or directly from the colour word. Both routes meet in the same textile background.

That history places Scarlet beside occupational names as well as colour names. Its modern appearance is simple, but the word once belonged to the language of fabrics and trade.

Literary connections

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850. Its central character, Hester Prynne, must wear a scarlet A after an affair. The colour becomes a visible sign around which the novel examines judgement, secrecy, and public identity.

Here Scarlet is part of the title and symbolism of the book, rather than Hester’s given name. The connection belongs to the colour word’s cultural life.

The related spelling Scarlett has a different fictional association: Scarlett O’Hara, the central character of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, published in 1936 and adapted for film in 1939. Her name is explained in the novel as coming from her grandmother.

Together, the two works show how the same colour and surname family entered literature in different ways. Hawthorne uses scarlet as a charged visual emblem; Mitchell gives the double-t form to a character as her personal name.

Pronunciation and spelling

Scarlet is pronounced SKAR-lit in English, with two syllables and stress on the first. Scarlett has the same pronunciation. Scarlette is another related spelling.

The single final t makes Scarlet look exactly like the ordinary English colour word. Scarlett more visibly preserves the familiar surname spelling, although the two remain close in both sound and origin.

American popularity

Scarlet was given to 100 girls in the United States in 2000 and 762 in 2010. Its highest annual birth count in the local SSA series was 870 in 2015, when it ranked #376.

In 2025, 581 girls received the exact spelling and it ranked #510. The single-t form thus has a substantial American pattern of use alongside Scarlett.

How popular is Scarlet?

In 2025, Scarlet ranked #510 among girls in the United States, with 581 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1939; its largest annual count was 870 in 2015. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.