Sharla
Feminine · “free man”
Charlotte is a diminutive of a diminutive. Charles gives French Charlot, little Charles; Charlot takes a feminine ending and gives Charlotte. So the name is two suffixes deep, and Sharla is that whole construction clipped almost back down to the root it started from.
How old is the name Sharla?
Sharla first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Sharla alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 5,800 people named Sharla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sharla most popular?
Sharla peaked in 1972, reaching #635 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,282 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Sharla
The story of Sharla
European languages build names by adding endings and then, when the result gets long, by cutting it back — and the cut version often survives the original. Charles gave Charlot and Charlotte in France, Charlene and Charlyn in English, and then Char, Charla and Sharla, which are shorter than the name they came from and no longer look like it. The s in this spelling is a piece of practical American orthography. French ch is the sound English writes sh, and English ch is the sound in church, so a family who wanted the French sound and not the English one wrote what they meant. Sharon, which sounds related, is not: it is Hebrew and names a coastal plain.
Meaning
free man
Through Charlotte and Charlene from Charles, and behind that the Germanic karl, which meant a man and specifically a free man rather than a serf. The diminutive endings added along the way carry affection and smallness and no meaning of their own. Sharla is the sound of the front of the word.
How the name formed
- karl
- Charles
- Charlotte
- Sharla
Related forms: Charlotte · Charlotte
Pronouncing Sharla
SHAR-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The sh is the whole point of the spelling: Charla, with a c, is read by English speakers as CHAR-la, with the ch of church, which is not the name.
Nicknames for Sharla
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 1971225 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #635reached in 1972
- Change vs 2022
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Sharla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charlotte in French — related form
- Charlotte in German — related form
Sharlas among us
people named Sharla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Sharla
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 Paul test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sharla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Paul climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Paul's path sketches the road Sharla is walking now.
Sharla 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
Sharla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sharla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Germanic meaning behind one of the largest name families in Europe.
- The spelling says the sound correctly to an English reader, which the French one does not.
- Two syllables, six letters, nothing to explain.
- Charla, Sharlah and Sharlee are all in use, and none of them is standard.
- It is strongly represented among older generations and places the name in the middle of the last century.
- It will be heard as a shortening of Sharlene or Charlotte rather than as a full name.
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What they receive
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Sharla
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sharlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,800 people named Sharla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sharla in 2025?
- Sharla ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sharla?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Sharla — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sharla with classmates?
- Sharla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sharla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sharla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sharla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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