Violet - wow what an unusual name

[Radicalfaces]

I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe!!

We wanted a name for our DD that was a classic normal English name, easy to spell and pronounce. We went with Violet.

From the minute she arrived everyone from family, friends and the nurses/ midwives have been so surprised by our name choice and said how unusual it is, they’ve never heard of any Violet’s etc.

we are confused and feel like the reaction is akin to if we’d named her Larksong or something!

I know a Violet - she's infant school age and absolutely lovely. When she was born I thought it was unusual but it suits her. One of my school friends has it as a middle name and was always embarassed by it as she thought it was old - nowadays she uses it as her first name as she thinks her first name is boring! I love the name, beautiful.

It’s a lovely name, but far from unusual. I’ve taught several little Violets over the years! There has been an increase in popularity since The Incredibles came out as it’s the name of the daughter.

Wow you must be right in middle of a Violet cluster - pp said less than 1000 in whole U.K. were named that in one year and you know 12 young ones 😲 not exaggerating a little are we ?

I think it's a lovely name

I genuinely know 5, ranging in age from 11 to a baby. So I believe someone could know 12 if they have children themselves and work in an environment with children. There are 3 in my daughters school which is less than 200 children.

I have a baby Violet and I've been getting the same response from older people! I don't know any personally but I am aware it's a top 50 name so I'm sure we'll run into a few in time! When I had my older DD i didn't move in baby/toddler circles and had no idea what was popular and couldn't have told you the ranking of her name! Turns out more babies were born in her birth year than Violet's last year and I haven't met that many!

More babies with her name were born that year I should say!

hi All, thanks for the responses! We love the name so we don’t mind if others don’t like it and that’s how they are responding. It was just a surprise to us as we thought we were picking a fairly normal not overly popular but well enough known name and peoples reactions have been like we’ve picked a super unusual name! We started to doubt ourselves as we didn’t really want anything too crazy - we are too boring 😂

What most are saying here is what we had thought of the name - older, but making a come back, top 50 name so not really out there, lots of young girls being called it now, similar to Arthur etc so I’m glad it seems like it is like this!

i’m in northern Ireland so maybe it’s a bit behind the U.K. with naming trends!

to the poster who said about keeping up appearances. That literally came into my head in the hospital and we could only remember ‘my sister Violet with room for a pony’ so thanks for the reminder of the full thing - at least it’s the posh sisters name I guess 😂😂😂

@Whattodonowadays we also loved hazel but it didn’t go with our surname unfortunately! We must have similar taste in names!

It's a fab name- Can't believe no one has referenced the Dowager in Donwton Abbey. Maggie Smith's phenomenally popular character.

I also think of Violet Elizabeth Bott in Just William- less attractive as a character

It's interesting as if you pay attention to name changes then Violet isn't unusual as it's in the top 100, however in real life most people don't pay attention so to them it's old fashioned if they don't know children with the name.

This was going to be the name we used if we had a daughter and my mum just said how old fashioned it is and just thinks we were being weird and quirky. I asked her for what names she likes and she gave me Olivia which she was completely unaware of it being the top name for so long.

Violet is a lovely name 💜 was on our baby name list. Has became really popular last 2 years. It’s currently number 17 most popular on Name Berry (people currently saving it on their name list) so be prepared for it to be a popular name over next couple of years - if you are wanting something more ‘unusual’ - but I think it’s sweet and nice!

It is my 22 year old granddaughter’s middle name.

I don’t know any little Violet’s but I wouldn’t be surprised to meet one as I know an Ivy, a Thora and a Connie.

Violet is a beautiful name.

My 13 year old niece is called Violet. I like it.

I’ve taught two in the last few years, both lovely girls.

Violet was popular here about 10 years ago. I haven't heard of any little ones for a while but there were about 6 at primary school a few years ago!

I think it's a generational thing. My parents would find a baby called Violet to be unusual. They'd probably segue into an anecdote about an old woman from their childhood called Violet who had a haberdashers and an angry pomeranian.

It is a beautiful name. It is not unusual as in odd, just not massively over-used - which is a great thing.

My niece is Violet nn Letty and she is wonderful :)

My great aunt was called Violet in the 1940's.

It must vary around the country, there are many little Violets where I am.

There are a lot of violets here! South East England. I would go as far to say its very popular.

I’ve always adored Violet 💜 Please believe in yourself.

I know a girl who has violet as a middle name. It's a lovely name.

Same here.