Charlotta
Feminine · “free man”
Charlotta is the name a great many European languages actually use, written the way they write it. English readers see the a on the end and assume a decoration; in Sweden, Germany and Latin records it is simply the correct ending, and the French e that Americans expect is the local variant rather than the original.
How old is the name Charlotta?
Charlotta was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Charlotta alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 600 people named Charlotta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charlotta most popular?
Charlotta peaked in 1880, reaching #836 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Germanic word for a free man of no rank gives the name Charles to Charlotta
The story of Charlotta
In 1774 a young German lawyer published a short novel about a man in love with a woman named Charlotte who was engaged to somebody else, and the effect on Europe was closer to a fever than to a literary success. Goethe's Werther was translated everywhere, argued about from pulpits, banned in some cities, and imitated by young men who dressed as the hero and adopted his despair as a style. Lotte, the woman at the center of it, was for a generation the most famous Charlotte on the continent. The name had already traveled through royal households; the novel put it into ordinary hands. By the time it reached American records in the form Charlotta, it had passed through German, Swedish and Latin registers alike, and each of them wrote the ending the same way.
Meaning
free man, in the feminine
The name is built on Charles, whose root is a Germanic word for a man who was free but of no particular rank — not a lord, not a servant. French made a small masculine form of it and then a feminine of that, which is how a word for an ordinary freeman ended up as one of the most aristocratic women's names in Europe. The meaning is agreed everywhere. Only the ending changes from language to language, and the ending is what this spelling is about.
How the name formed
- A Germanic word for a free man of no rank gives the name Charles
- French forms the diminutive Charlot and the feminine Charlotte
- German, Swedish and Latin records write the ending as -a
- 1774: Goethe's Werther makes a Charlotte famous across Europe
- Charlotta reaches American records with European immigration
Related forms: Charlotta · Charlotte · Carlotta · Carlota · Lotte
Pronouncing Charlotta
shar-LOT-ah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Swedish and German speakers begin it with a harder sound, closer to shar or even kar, and the final a is always pronounced — it is a syllable, not a silent flourish, which is the main thing English readers get wrong.
Nicknames for Charlotta
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 195022 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #836reached in 1880
- Change vs 1994
- 0.0%6 in 2000, from 6
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.
Charlotta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charlotta in Swedish — same name
- Charlotte in French — spelling variant
- Carlotta in Italian — related form
- Carlota in Spanish — related form
- Lotte in German — related form
Charlottas among us
people named Charlotta are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Charlotta sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A genuine European form rather than an invented one, at home in several languages at once
- Three well-established short forms with very different characters
- Shares its sound and dignity with a currently fashionable name while remaining rare in this spelling
- English speakers will read the ending as a typo for the French spelling and correct it without asking.
- The name is long and formal on paper, which for some children means the short form does all the work from the first week of school.
- It carries an unmistakably old-world register, which reads as elegant to some ears and antique to others.
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Charlotta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Charlottas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Charlotta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charlotta in 2025?
- Charlotta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Charlotta with classmates?
- Charlotta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Charlotta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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