Charmaine
Feminine
Charmaine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 15,375 girls against 20 boys since 1880.
Charmaine came out of a 1924 play about the First World War and the song written for its film — one of the clearest cases in the record of a name arriving from a single melody.
How old is the name Charmaine?
Charmaine first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Charmaine alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 13,000 people named Charmaine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charmaine most popular?
Charmaine peaked in 1952, reaching #331 nationally. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Charmaine
What Price Glory opened on Broadway in 1924, and the 1926 film's theme song, Charmaine, became one of the great popular successes of its decade and was recorded repeatedly for forty years afterwards. The name appears in American records immediately after, rises through the 1930s and 1940s, and peaked around 1948.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The origin is genuinely unsettled. It may be a coinage from the English 'charm' with a French-looking ending; it may be a variant of Charmian, the attendant in Antony and Cleopatra, from the Greek charma, 'delight'; or a feminine built on Charles. None of these is documented for the 1924 usage.
Pronouncing Charmaine
shar-MAYN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Some bearers use a hard ch at the front.
Nicknames for Charmaine
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 1952619 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #331reached in 1952
- Change vs 2022
- +70.0%17 in 2024, from 10
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.
Charmaine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charmain in English — spelling variant
- Sharmaine in English — spelling variant
- Charmian in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Charmaines among us
people named Charmaine 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
Charmaine 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
- Its arrival is unusually well documented — a specific play, film and song.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Charmian gives it a possible Shakespearean cousin.
- The origin is genuinely unsettled and may be a pure coinage.
- The initial consonant splits between two readings.
- It is strongly period-coded to the 1940s and 1950s.
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Charmaine
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Charmaines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,000 people named Charmaine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charmaine in 2025?
- Charmaine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Charmaine with classmates?
- Charmaine 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 Charmaine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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