Charlett
A feminine form of Charles, a masculine name of French origin meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 210 living Americans carry the first name Charlett. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlett today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlett births was 1969 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlett. 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.
People living today
210
~ 1 in 1,632,164 Americans
Peak year
1969
15 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2021 SSA rank
#13,836
Tracked since 1931
Census
Charlett in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 349 people with the first name Charlett, which placed it at #26,600 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
#26,600
National first-name rank
People counted
349
349 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlett
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlett is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.2%) and Hispanic (9.2%). 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 Charlett 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 Charlett at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.3% · 207
- Black or African American25.2% · 88
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 32
- Two or more races6.0% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Popularity
Charlett: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlett from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 59 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
Charlett 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 Charlett 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 Charlett
The name Charlett is a feminine given name of English origin, derived from the French word "charlette," which means "little Charles." It dates back to the Middle Ages, when it was a diminutive form of the male name Charles, which itself originated from the Germanic name Karl, meaning "man" or "husband."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charlett can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England completed in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. In this document, a woman named Charlett is listed as a landowner in the county of Lincolnshire.
Throughout history, the name Charlett has been associated with several notable individuals. One of the most famous was Charlett Browne (1784-1857), an English philanthropist and social reformer who established several schools and institutions for the education of the poor.
Another prominent figure was Charlett Armstrong (1836-1919), an American educator and advocate for women's rights. She was one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Women and played a crucial role in the establishment of several women's colleges in the United States.
In the realm of literature, Charlett Parkhurst (1812-1879) was a notable figure. She was an American stagecoach driver who lived her life as a man, known as "One-Eyed Charley," to avoid discrimination in the male-dominated profession of driving stagecoaches.
The name Charlett also appears in religious texts. In the Book of Judith, a deuterocanonical book included in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions, there is a reference to a woman named Charlett who played a significant role in the narrative.
Another notable bearer of the name was Charlett Brontë (1816-1855), the eldest of the famous Brontë sisters, who was a writer and poet in her own right, although her works were overshadowed by the literary success of her siblings, Emily and Anne.
While these are just a few examples, the name Charlett has been carried by many remarkable individuals throughout history, spanning various fields and cultures, and continues to be a popular choice for baby names in the English-speaking world.
People
Charlett + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlett 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
Charlett: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlett?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 210 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlett 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 1,632,164 US residents.
Is Charlett a common name?
We classify Charlett as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 278 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlett most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlett was 1969, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlett is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlett in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 349 people with the name Charlett, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,600 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 Charlett 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 Charlett?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlett appears almost entirely female. Of the 350 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Charlett?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlett is White at 59.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.2%) and Hispanic (9.2%). 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 Charlett most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charlett in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.3% (207 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 Charlett in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlett a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlett 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 Charlett still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlett 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 Charlett 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 Americans are named Charlett?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Charlett on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.