Charlaine
A feminine French name derived from the Germanic name Charles, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 192 living Americans carry the first name Charlaine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlaine today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlaine births was 1935 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlaine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Charlaine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Charlaine is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Charlaines were born before 1966.
People living today
192
~ 1 in 1,785,179 Americans
Peak year
1935
19 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1994 SSA rank
#9,729
Tracked since 1918
Census
Charlaine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 368 people with the first name Charlaine, which placed it at #25,680 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,680
National first-name rank
People counted
368
368 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlaine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlaine is White at 67.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Charlaine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Charlaine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.9% · 250
- Black or African American18.2% · 67
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.2% · 30
- Two or more races3.5% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Charlaine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlaine from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 107 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charlaine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Charlaine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charlaines live
Origin
Meaning and history of Charlaine
The name Charlaine is a feminine given name of French origin, derived from the combination of two Old French words: "char" meaning "beloved" and "laine" meaning "wool" or "linen." It emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, in the northern regions of France.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charlaine dates back to the 13th century, when it appeared in a medieval French manuscript. However, the name was relatively uncommon during this period and was primarily used among the nobility and upper classes of French society.
The name gained some popularity in the late 16th century, particularly in the regions of Normandy and Brittany. One notable figure from this time was Charlaine de Montfort, a French noblewoman born in 1578, who played a significant role in the religious wars that plagued France during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
In the 18th century, Charlaine Duval, a French writer and philosopher born in 1721, gained recognition for her works on moral philosophy and ethics. She was a prominent figure in the intellectual circles of Paris during the Enlightenment period.
As the name spread across Europe, variations and adaptations emerged in different languages. In the 19th century, the German variation "Charlene" became popular, with Charlene von Stein, a German painter born in 1832, being one of the most notable figures with this name.
Another historical figure worth mentioning is Charlaine de Beaufort, a French aristocrat and philanthropist born in 1845, who dedicated her life to supporting various charitable causes and helping the less fortunate in her community.
Over the centuries, the name Charlaine has remained a relatively uncommon choice, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, it has maintained a certain charm and elegance, often associated with its French roots and historical connections.
People
Charlaine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlaine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Charlaine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlaine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 192 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlaine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,785,179 US residents.
Is Charlaine a common name?
We classify Charlaine as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 395 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlaine most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlaine was 1935, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlaine is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlaine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 368 people with the name Charlaine, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,680 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Charlaine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Charlaine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlaine appears almost entirely female. Of the 373 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Charlaine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlaine is White at 67.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Charlaine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charlaine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.9% (250 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Charlaine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlaine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlaine in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Charlaine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlaine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Charlaine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Charlaine?
Want to know how many people have the name Charlaine? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.