Charlene
Feminine · “free man”
Charlene is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 133,729 girls against 382 boys since 1880.
Charlene is a feminine of Charles built the American way — the -ene ending applied to a familiar stem, in the same wave that gave Darlene, Marlene, Arlene and Earlene.
How old is the name Charlene?
Charlene first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Charlene alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 98,500 people named Charlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charlene most popular?
Charlene peaked in 1949, reaching #100 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, 1,842 places below that high. See the whole 1949 chart.
Charlene appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From karl to Charlene
The story of Charlene
Charles was a Frankish royal name half of Europe borrowed, and every language built feminines on it — Carla, Carlotta, Charlotte, Caroline. American naming of the early twentieth century added its own, using the productive -ene suffix: Charlene appears in the registers from the 1920s, rose sharply through the 1940s and peaked in the mid-1950s alongside Darlene and Marlene.
Meaning
free man
Through Charles, from the Germanic karl, 'free man' — a man of standing below the nobility. The word became a title through Charlemagne, whose name was so dominant that karl itself became the Slavic word for king. The -ene ending carries no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- karl
- Charles
- Charlene
Related forms: Charline · Charleen · Carlina
Pronouncing Charlene
shar-LEEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. The -ene ending always carries the stress in names of this family.
Nicknames for Charlene
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
- 1888
- Most girls named
- 19533,504 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #100reached in 1949
- Change vs 2022
- −10.8%99 in 2025, from 111
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.
Charlene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charline in French — related form
- Charleen in English — spelling variant
- Carlina in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Charlenes among us
people named Charlene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,235 born in 2025 was named Charlene
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 Lola test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Charlene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lola climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lola's path sketches the road Charlene is walking now.
Charlene 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 Charlene is headed
Charlene should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Charlene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Charlene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It sits in the enormous Charles family, so cousins exist in every European language.
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- It belongs to a coherent and well-documented family of American names.
- Charlene and Charleen are both in use.
- It is sharply period-coded to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Charlene
Feminine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Charlenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 98,500 people named Charlene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charlene in 2025?
- Charlene ranks #1942 among US girl names in 2025, with 99 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Charlene?
- About 1 in every 16,235 US girls born in 2025 was named Charlene — 99 in all.
- Will my child share the name Charlene with classmates?
- Charlene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Charlene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Iyanna#1942 · Nahomi#1942 · Aziyah#1942 · Avia#1942 · Nazly#1942 · Kamiya#1942 · Priya#1942 · Kyndall#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Charlene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Charlene and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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