Charlia
A feminine name of English origin meaning "free woman".
Name Census estimates that about 23 living Americans carry the first name Charlia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlia today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlia births was 2000 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlia. 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 Charlia. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
23
~ 1 in 14,902,363 Americans
Peak year
2000
7 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2003 SSA rank
#16,261
Tracked since 1937
Census
Charlia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 152 people with the first name Charlia, which placed it at #44,992 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
#44,992
National first-name rank
People counted
152
152 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlia is Black at 61.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Charlia 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 Charlia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.8% · 94
- White27.6% · 42
- Two or more races4.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 1
Popularity
Charlia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlia from the 1930s through to the 2000s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 17 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
Charlia 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 Charlia 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 Charlia
The name Charlia is believed to have originated from the ancient Germanic language, derived from the root word "karl," meaning "man" or "warrior." This name gained prominence during the Middle Ages across various European regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charlia can be traced back to the 9th century, when a Frankish nobleman named Charlia the Wise was known for his diplomatic efforts in establishing peace treaties between rival kingdoms. His legacy is documented in several historical chronicles from that era.
In the 11th century, a renowned scholar and philosopher named Charlia of Cologne made significant contributions to the fields of theology and metaphysics. His writings and teachings influenced the intellectual discourse of that time.
During the Renaissance period, Charlia da Vinci, a lesser-known relative of the famous Leonardo da Vinci, gained recognition as a skilled architect and engineer. Her innovative designs for fortifications and aqueducts were widely acclaimed in Renaissance Italy.
In the 18th century, Charlia Nightingale, a British military nurse, was celebrated for her bravery and dedication during the Crimean War. Her efforts to improve sanitary conditions for wounded soldiers made a lasting impact on the nursing profession.
The name Charlia also found its way into the literary world, with Charlia Austen, a renowned English novelist and playwright of the 19th century. Her witty and satirical works, such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility," have become classics of English literature.
While the name Charlia has its roots in ancient European cultures, it has evolved and been adopted in various regions over time, carrying with it a sense of strength, wisdom, and intellectual curiosity.
People
Charlia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlia 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
Charlia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlia 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 14,902,363 US residents.
Is Charlia a common name?
We classify Charlia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 42.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 28 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlia most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlia was 2000, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlia is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 152 people with the name Charlia, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,992 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 Charlia 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 Charlia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlia leans strongly female. 149 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 4 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Charlia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlia is Black at 61.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Charlia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Charlia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.8% (94 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 Charlia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlia 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 Charlia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlia 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 Charlia 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 are called Charlia?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.