Charlotte
Feminine · “Free man”
Charlotte is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 453,433 girls against 771 boys since 1880. See Charlotte as a boy name
Charlotte is the French feminine of Charles, built by adding a small diminutive ending to a name Frankish kings carried for centuries. It arrived in English on the strength of queens and consorts, and stayed on the strength of a novelist from a Yorkshire parsonage. Three syllables that end soft — SHAR-lət — with the whole of Charles folded into the first one.
How old is the name Charlotte?
Charlotte was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Charlotte alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 327,000 people named Charlotte are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charlotte most popular?
Charlotte peaked in 2025, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #2, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Charlotte appears on these lists:
- Long and elegant: names with room to breathe
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Names at their all-time peak, right now
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Works in British and French families too:
Where it comes from
From Karl to Charlotte
The story of Charlotte
The name begins with Germanic karl, which became Karl and then Charles, borne by Frankish and later French rulers. French speakers made feminine diminutives of it — Charlot for a boy, Charlotte for a girl — and by the seventeenth century Charlotte was established in France. It crossed into English use through royal marriages, most consequentially when Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz became queen consort in Britain in the eighteenth century; towns and a North Carolina city were named for her. English literature then gave it a second life of its own, and it has been in continuous use on both sides of the Atlantic since.
Meaning
Free man, or free — from the Germanic root behind Charles
The root is Old High German karl, 'free man' or simply 'man'. Charlotte carries it through the French diminutive of Charles, so the sense is inherited rather than freshly coined.
Cultural footprint
Charlotte, Princess of Wales (b. 2015) — Daughter of Prince William and Princess Catherine, third in line to the British throne
Charlotte Brontë (b. 1816) — Wrote Jane Eyre
Charlotte Rampling (b. 1946) — Oscar-nominated British screen icon
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (b. 1860) — Author of the classic story The Yellow Wallpaper
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Karl
- Charles
- Charlot
- Charlotte
Related forms: Charlotte · Charlotte · Carlotta · Carlota · Charlotta · Karolina
Pronouncing Charlotte
SHAR-lət
Two syllables in English, stress on the first. French speakers say it closer to shar-LOT, with both syllables even and a crisper final t — worth knowing if the name will be used in both languages.
Nicknames for Charlotte
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2015 — Princess Charlotte born
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 202513,400 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +3.5%13,400 in 2025, from 12,952
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.
Charlotte in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charlotte in French — same name
- Charlotte in German — same name
- Carlotta in Italian — related form
- Carlota in Spanish — related form
- Charlotta in Dutch — spelling variant
- Karolina in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Statistics Canada, National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics, INSEE. Sources
Charlottes among us
people named Charlotte are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 120 born in 2025 was named Charlotte
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 Barbara test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Charlotte's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Barbara climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Barbara's path sketches the road Charlotte is walking now.
Charlotte has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Charlotte is headed
Charlotte 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.
Charlotte beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Charlotte in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled one way in English and recognized on sight; almost nobody needs it repeated or clarified.
- Several established short forms with long histories of their own — Lottie, Charlie, Char — so the child has room to choose.
- Works unchanged in French, German and Dutch, and has close cousins in Carlotta and Carlota.
- An unbroken record in English use since the eighteenth century, and it charts in Canada, Britain and France as well as the US.
- It is currently near the very top of the US charts, so a Charlotte may well share a classroom or a soccer team with another one.
- Charlie is shared with boys named Charles, which some families like and others find muddling when nicknames get used at school.
- The French and English pronunciations differ in stress and in the final consonant, worth settling early in a bilingual household.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Charlotte to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Charlotte
Feminine · #2 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Charlottes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 327,000 people named Charlotte are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charlotte in 2025?
- Charlotte ranks #2 among US girl names in 2025, with 13,400 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Charlotte?
- About 1 in every 120 US girls born in 2025 was named Charlotte — 13,400 in all.
- Will my child share the name Charlotte with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 5 classrooms will have a child named Charlotte.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Charlotte's chart?
- Charlotte climbed after 2015 — Princess Charlotte born.
Ranked beside Charlotte
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emma#3 · Olivia#1 · Amelia#4 · Sophia#5 · Mia#6 · Isabella#7 · Evelyn#8 · Sofia#9
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Charlotte? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Charlotte and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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