Violet is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,555 at the 2000 census. Violet is located on the east bank of the Mississippi River, approximately 7.5 miles (12.1 km) southeast of New Orleans and is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The area now known as Violet was originally part of the Livaudais Plantation. Violet sprang up after the development of the Violet Canal. It was named by canal booster Albert Covington Janin, after his wife Violet Blair Janin, a Washington, D.C. socialite and part of the influential Blair family for whom the Blair House across from the White House in Washington D.C. is named. Albert Janin spent his youth in St. Bernard Parish in the large Janin family home. His father, Louis Janin, Sr., a prominent lawyer who had immigrated from France to New Orleans in 1828, sent his sons to Europe for their education, including Albert.