Charmain
Feminine
Charmaine was a song before it was a name in America. A waltz written for a silent film about the First World War became one of the best-selling records of the 1920s, was revived thirty years later and sold again, and the name entered the American register within two years of the first version.
How old is the name Charmain?
Charmain first appears in US birth records in 1928 — 97 years ago. The typical Charmain alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 900 people named Charmain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charmain most popular?
Charmain peaked in 1967, reaching #1783 nationally. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Greek name given to one of Cleopatra's attendants to Charmain
The story of Charmain
The film was a war picture with two soldiers and a French girl; the studio commissioned a theme, the sheet music sold in the hundreds of thousands, and the tune outlived the picture completely. When a bandleader recorded it again in the 1950s it went to the top of the charts a second time — one of very few tunes to be a hit in two separate decades — and the name appears in the American record with a small bump each time. Nobody now can hum the film. Everybody's grandmother could hum the waltz.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The songwriters appear to have taken the name from Charmian, a Greek name that Shakespeare and Plutarch both give to one of Cleopatra's attendants, and respelled it. A French route through charme has also been suggested and there is nothing behind it. This spelling drops the final e, which changes nothing audible and produces the rarer of the two American forms.
How the name formed
- a Greek name given to one of Cleopatra's attendants
- songwriters respell it for a film theme in the 1920s
- the tune is a hit twice, thirty years apart
- Charmain appears in the American record in the 1920s
- peaks in the late 1960s
Related forms: Charmaine · Charmion
Pronouncing Charmain
shar-MAIN
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The ch is a sh sound, following the French look of the name, which English readers get right about half the time.
Nicknames for Charmain
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
- 1928
- Most girls named
- 197244 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1783reached in 1967
- Change vs 1998
- −16.7%5 in 2002, 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.
Charmain in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charmaine in English — spelling variant
- Charmion in Greek — related form
Charmains among us
people named Charmain 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
Charmain 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
- It is read correctly at sight once the first consonant is settled.
- The sound is soft and the stress falls where English likes it in a borrowed name.
- It has a genuine Greek name behind it at one remove.
- The ch will be read as a hard church sound by readers who have not met it.
- Charmaine is commoner and the final letter will be added back.
- It is closely dated to the middle decades of the last century.
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Charmain
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Charmains are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Charmain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charmain in 2025?
- Charmain is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Charmain with classmates?
- Charmain will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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