Escarlet
A feminine name derived from the French word "écarlate", meaning bright red or scarlet.
Name Census estimates that about 97 living Americans carry the first name Escarlet. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Escarlet today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Escarlet births was 2011 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Escarlet. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Escarlet. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
97
~ 1 in 3,533,550 Americans
Peak year
2011
17 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,970
Tracked since 2002
Census
Escarlet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 336 people with the first name Escarlet, which placed it at #27,298 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#27,298
National first-name rank
People counted
336
336 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
94.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Escarlet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Escarlet is Hispanic at 94.9%. The next largest groups are White (3.3%) and Black (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Escarlet described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Escarlet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino94.9% · 319
- White3.3% · 11
- Black or African American0.9% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 2
- Two or more races0.3% · 1
Popularity
Escarlet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Escarlet from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 48 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Escarlet by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Escarlet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Escarlet
The name Escarlet is a relatively modern variation of the name Scarlett, which itself is derived from the Old French word "escarlate" meaning a vivid red color. This word in turn comes from the Persian word "saqalat" which referred to a type of rich fabric dyed with the brilliant red color extracted from the shells of a particular Mediterranean insect.
The name Scarlett first gained popularity in medieval Europe, particularly in France and England, where it was sometimes used as a surname or descriptive name referring to a person's bright red hair color. The earliest recorded use of the name Scarlett as a given name dates back to the 13th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Scarlett was Scarlett de Borard, a French noblewoman who lived in the late 12th century. She was the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Normandy and is mentioned in several historical records from the time.
In the 16th century, a woman named Scarlett Wilkins gained notoriety in England for her involvement in a high-profile court case related to property rights. She was born in 1522 and her legal battle was widely reported in contemporary accounts.
The name Scarlett rose to greater prominence in English literature with the publication of the novel "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. The novel's main character, Scarlett O'Hara, played a significant role in popularizing the name in the 20th century.
Another notable bearer of the name Escarlet was Escarlet de Vilar, a 13th-century Spanish poet and troubadour. She was born in Aragon around 1220 and her poems, written in the Occitan language, are among the earliest known works by a female author from that region.
In the 19th century, a German artist named Escarlet Schiebeler gained recognition for her intricate woodblock prints and engravings depicting scenes from everyday life. She was born in 1832 in Dresden and her work was widely exhibited during her lifetime.
People
Escarlet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Escarlet as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Escarlet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Escarlet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 97 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Escarlet going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,533,550 US residents.
Is Escarlet a common name?
We classify Escarlet as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 98 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Escarlet most popular?
The single biggest year for Escarlet was 2011, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Escarlet is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Escarlet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 336 people with the name Escarlet, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,298 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Escarlet in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Escarlet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Escarlet leans strongly female. 328 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 6 male bearers (1.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Escarlet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Escarlet is Hispanic at 94.9%. The next largest groups are White (3.3%) and Black (0.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Escarlet most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Escarlet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.9% (319 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Escarlet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Escarlet a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Escarlet in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Escarlet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Escarlet in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Escarlet can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Escarlet as a first name?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Escarlet at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.