Sharlee
Feminine · “A spelling of Charlie”
Sharlee is Charlie written the way it sounds, a spelling that marked the name for a daughter in the middle of the twentieth century. Charley has been a stage farce and a leg cramp, and nobody knows how it became the second.
How old is the name Sharlee?
Sharlee first appears in US birth records in 1928 — 97 years ago. The typical Sharlee alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 500 people named Sharlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sharlee most popular?
Sharlee peaked in 1949, reaching #2620 nationally. See the whole 1949 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Karl to Sharlee
The story of Sharlee
Charley's Aunt, a farce by Brandon Thomas first staged in London in 1892, sent an Oxford undergraduate into a dress to impersonate a rich widow from Brazil, 'where the nuts come from', and it ran for a record number of performances and has been revived ever since. In American baseball slang of the 1880s a stiff, cramping leg became a charley horse, and though several stories are told — a lame horse called Charley, a player called Charley — none has been proved. Sharlee, with its sh and double e, is one of the spellings that turned Charlie into a girl's name in the years before Charlotte came back.
Meaning
A spelling of Charlie, from Charles or Charlotte, 'free man'
Charlie is the pet form of Charles, from Germanic karl, 'free man', and of its feminine Charlotte.
How the name formed
- Karl
- Charles
- Charlie
- Sharlee
Related forms: Charlie · Charlee · Charlotte
Pronouncing Sharlee
SHAR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, like Charlie.
Nicknames for Sharlee
Limited
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
- 199022 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2620reached in 1949
- Change vs 2013
- +16.7%7 in 2015, 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.
Sharlee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charlie in English — spelling variant
- Charlee in English — spelling variant
- Charlotte in French — related form
Sharlees among us
people named Sharlee 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
Sharlee 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
- Sounds like Charlie, a name everyone knows.
- The sh spelling marks it clearly as a girl's name.
- Rare, so a Sharlee is unlikely to share it.
- People will write Charlie or Sharlie.
- It reads as a mid-century name.
- Some will read the sh as a misspelling rather than a choice.
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Sharlee
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Sharlees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Sharlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sharlee in 2025?
- Sharlee is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Sharlee with classmates?
- Sharlee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sharlee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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