Charlesa
Feminine form of Charles, a French name derived from Germanic roots meaning "man".
Name Census estimates that about 85 living Americans carry the first name Charlesa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlesa today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlesa births was 1990 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlesa. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Charlesa. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
85
~ 1 in 4,032,404 Americans
Peak year
1990
15 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1996 SSA rank
#13,915
Tracked since 1954
Census
Charlesa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 184 people with the first name Charlesa, which placed it at #40,443 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
#40,443
National first-name rank
People counted
184
184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlesa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlesa is Black at 54.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.3%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Charlesa 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 Charlesa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.3% · 100
- White35.3% · 65
- Two or more races7.6% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 2
Popularity
Charlesa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlesa from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 41 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charlesa 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 Charlesa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charlesa
The name Charlesa is a feminine form of the masculine given name Charles, which is derived from the Germanic name Karl. The name Karl comes from the Old High German word "karl" meaning "man" or "husband." It is also related to the Old English word "churl" which meant a peasant or common man.
The name Charles gained popularity in France and eventually spread throughout Europe. It became a common name among royalty, with several kings and emperors bearing the name. The most famous bearer of the name was Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, the King of the Franks who ruled from 768 to 814 AD and was later crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor.
The feminine form Charlesa emerged as a variant of the name Charles, likely in the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charlesa can be found in the 13th century, when a woman named Charlesa de Bourbon was mentioned in French historical records.
Throughout history, several notable women bore the name Charlesa. Charlesa de Bourbon, mentioned earlier, was a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. Another notable Charlesa was Charlesa de Montfort, a 14th-century French noblewoman who played a role in the Breton War of Succession.
In the 16th century, Charlesa de Lannoy was a Flemish noblewoman and courtier at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. She was known for her intelligence and diplomatic skills.
In the 18th century, Charlesa de Bourbon was a Spanish infanta and the sister of King Charles III of Spain. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of charitable causes.
Another notable Charlesa was Charlesa de Condé, a French noblewoman who lived in the 17th century. She was known for her involvement in the Fronde, a series of civil wars in France during the minority of King Louis XIV.
While the name Charlesa was more common in Europe, particularly in France and Spain, it has also been used in other parts of the world, though less frequently. The name's popularity has waned in recent centuries, but it still holds historical significance and a connection to the heritage of royalty and nobility.
People
Charlesa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlesa 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
Charlesa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlesa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 85 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlesa 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 4,032,404 US residents.
Is Charlesa a common name?
We classify Charlesa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 93 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlesa most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlesa was 1990, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlesa is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlesa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 184 people with the name Charlesa, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,443 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 Charlesa 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 Charlesa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlesa leans strongly female. 171 people counted with this name were female (90.0%), compared with 19 male bearers (10.0%). 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 Charlesa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlesa is Black at 54.3%. The next largest groups are White (35.3%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Charlesa most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Charlesa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.3% (100 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 Charlesa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlesa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlesa 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 Charlesa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlesa 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 Charlesa 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 Charlesa as a first name?
Find out how many Americans are named Charlesa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.