Charisma
Feminine · “a freely given gift”
Charisma is a theological word that became a sociological one and then an everyday one. In Greek it meant simply a gift freely given; Paul used it for the gifts of the spirit; and a German sociologist writing about authority in the early twentieth century borrowed it for the quality that makes people follow someone without being made to.
How old is the name Charisma?
Charisma first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Charisma alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 3,800 people named Charisma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charisma most popular?
Charisma peaked in 2000, reaching #1060 nationally. Today it ranks #5099, 4,039 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kharis to Charisma
The story of Charisma
The word's journey is unusually traceable. Kharis meant grace and kharisma meant something given out of it; Paul's letters listed the charismata of prophecy, healing and tongues, which is where the charismatic movement gets its name; and a study of the types of legitimate authority published in the nineteen-twenties introduced charismatic authority as a category, from which the everyday word came. As a given name it is recent, American, and belongs with Serenity and Destiny.
Meaning
a freely given gift; grace
Greek kharisma, a gift or favor, from kharis, grace or kindness. The New Testament uses it for spiritual gifts, and the modern English sense of personal magnetism entered the language from sociology in the middle of the twentieth century.
How the name formed
- kharis
- kharisma
- charisma
- Charisma
Related forms: χάρισμα · Karisma
Pronouncing Charisma
kuh-RIZ-muh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the ch said as a k. There is no other reading in English.
Nicknames for Charisma
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 2001173 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1060reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −28.6%25 in 2025, from 35
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Charisma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- χάρισμα in Greek — transliteration
- Karisma in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Charismas among us
people named Charisma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was named Charisma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kamala test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Charisma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kamala climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kamala's path sketches the road Charisma is walking now.
Charisma sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Charisma is headed
Charisma is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Charisma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Charisma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is documented in Greek, in scripture and in modern social science.
- Char and Chari are ready short forms of different registers.
- Everyone can say it after hearing it once, and the spelling is the standard one.
- It is a word in ordinary use, describing a quality the child may or may not have.
- The ch is said as a k, which some readers get wrong at first sight.
- Word-names of this kind are read as a claim, which some children carry easily and others do not.
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What they receive
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Charisma
Feminine · #5099 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Charismas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Charisma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charisma in 2025?
- Charisma ranks #5099 among US girl names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Charisma?
- About 1 in every 64,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Charisma — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name Charisma with classmates?
- Charisma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Charisma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janette#5099 · Loraine#5099 · Delfina#5099 · Hali#5099 · Mecca#5099 · Zoi#5099 · Afia#5099 · Emelie#5099
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Charisma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Charisma and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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