Charlie
A masculine diminutive form of the name Charles, derived from Old English meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 117,732 living Americans carry the first name Charlie. It sits at #140 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Charlie today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlie births was 2022 (4,447 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlie. 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 Charlie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
118K
~ 1 in 2,911 Americans
Peak year
2022
4,447 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#140
Tracked since 1880
Census
Charlie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 104,899 people with the first name Charlie, which placed it at #533 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
#533
National first-name rank
People counted
105K
104,899 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
34.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlie is White at 61.2%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Hispanic (11.3%). 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 Charlie 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 Charlie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.2% · 64,249
- Black or African American18.0% · 18,873
- Hispanic or Latino11.3% · 11,884
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 4,991
- Two or more races3.7% · 3,832
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 1,070
Gender
Gender distribution for Charlie
Charlie leans heavily male at 82.6% of total registrations, but 38,190 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Charlie as a male name
- Ranked #176 in 2024
- 2,084 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (2,891 births)
Charlie as a female name
- Ranked #140 in 2024
- 2,109 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (2,340 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Charlie on both sides of the split. Of the 104,901 people counted with this name, 83,356 were male (79.5%) and 21,545 were female (20.5%).
Popularity
Charlie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 31,006 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Charlie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charlie 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 Charlie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 7,091 | 83 | 7,174 |
| 1890s | 7,261 | 184 | 7,445 |
| 1900s | 7,928 | 347 | 8,275 |
| 1910s | 19,834 | 1,138 | 20,972 |
| 1920s | 25,176 | 1,831 | 27,007 |
| 1930s | 19,154 | 1,491 | 20,645 |
| 1940s | 18,264 | 1,211 | 19,475 |
| 1950s | 15,282 | 774 | 16,056 |
| 1960s | 10,043 | 347 | 10,390 |
| 1970s | 6,368 | 380 | 6,748 |
| 1980s | 5,467 | 809 | 6,276 |
| 1990s | 4,912 | 1,216 | 6,128 |
| 2000s | 8,367 | 2,709 | 11,076 |
| 2010s | 16,490 | 14,516 | 31,006 |
| 2020s | 10,169 | 11,154 | 21,323 |
Geography
Where Charlies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Charlie, while Delaware, Wyoming, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,723 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charlie
The name Charlie is a diminutive form of the name Charles, which originated from the Germanic name Karl. This name was derived from the Old English word "ceorl," meaning a free man or husband. The name Karl gained popularity in the Middle Ages after Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, who ruled from 768 to 814 AD.
The name Charles is believed to have been first introduced to England by the Normans after their conquest in 1066. It became a popular name among the English nobility and royalty, with several kings bearing the name, including Charles I and Charles II.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charlie dates back to the 16th century, when it was used as a nickname for Charles. In literature, the name Charlie appears in works such as Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist," where the character Charlie Bates is a member of the Artful Dodger's gang.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Charlie. One of the most famous was Charlie Chaplin, the legendary English comic actor, and filmmaker who lived from 1889 to 1977. Another well-known Charlie was Charlie Parker, the American jazz saxophonist and composer, who was born in 1920 and died in 1955.
In the realm of sports, Charlie Gehringer, an American baseball player who played for the Detroit Tigers from 1924 to 1942, was renowned for his batting skills and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Charlie Hustle was the nickname of Pete Rose, the American professional baseball player, and manager who lived from 1941 to present.
The name Charlie also has ties to literature, with Charlie Brown being the central character in the beloved "Peanuts" comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from 1950 to 2000.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Charlie
People
Charlie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlie 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
Charlie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 117,732 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlie 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 2,911 US residents.
Is Charlie a common name?
We classify Charlie as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 219,996 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlie most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlie was 2022, when 4,447 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlie is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 104,899 people with the name Charlie, or 34.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #533 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 Charlie 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 Charlie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Charlie on both sides of the split. Of the 104,901 people counted with this name, 83,356 were male (79.5%) and 21,545 were female (20.5%). 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 Charlie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlie is White at 61.2%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Hispanic (11.3%). 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 Charlie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charlie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.2% (64,249 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 Charlie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlie a male name?
Yes, 82.6% of people registered as Charlie in the SSA data are male. 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 Charlie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlie 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 Charlie 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 common is the name Charlie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.