Charls
A masculine name of English origin meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 228 living Americans carry the first name Charls. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Charls today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charls births was 1932 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charls. 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
- • The typical person named Charls is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Charls' were born before 1964.
People living today
228
~ 1 in 1,503,309 Americans
Peak year
1932
24 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1987 SSA rank
#4,295
Tracked since 1886
Census
Charls in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 362 people with the first name Charls, which placed it at #25,958 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
#25,958
National first-name rank
People counted
362
362 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charls
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charls is White at 60.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.7%). 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 Charls 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 Charls at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.8% · 220
- Black or African American21.5% · 78
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.7% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 24
- Two or more races1.4% · 5
Popularity
Charls: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charls from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 165 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charls 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 Charls during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charls' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Charls
The name Charls is a masculine given name derived from the Germanic name Karl, which originated from the common Germanic word "karl" meaning "man" or "freeman." The name has its roots in ancient Germanic cultures and was popular among various Germanic tribes throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
The name gained significant prominence with the rise of Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, the King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, who ruled from 768 to 814 AD. Charlemagne's name, which was also spelled as "Charls" or "Karlus" in some historical records, helped to popularize the name across Europe during his reign and in the centuries that followed.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Charls dates back to the 9th century, when a French nobleman named Charls the Bald, also known as Charles II, ruled as the King of West Francia from 843 to 877 AD. Another notable figure bearing the name was Charls Martel, the Frankish ruler who defeated the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, effectively halting the Muslim conquest of Western Europe.
Throughout history, several influential figures have carried the name Charls. One such individual was Charls V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, who reigned from 1519 to 1556 and oversaw the vast Spanish Empire during the height of its power. Another prominent bearer of the name was Charls XII, the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718, known for his military exploits and involvement in the Great Northern War.
In the realm of literature, the name Charls is closely associated with the English poet and cleric, Charls Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, who lived from 1832 to 1898 and authored the iconic works "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."
The name Charls has also been carried by notable figures in various fields, such as Charls Dickens, the renowned English novelist born in 1812, and Charls Darwin, the English naturalist and geologist born in 1809, best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection.
People
Charls + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charls 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
Charls: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charls?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 228 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charls 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 1,503,309 US residents.
Is Charls a common name?
We classify Charls as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 722 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charls most popular?
The single biggest year for Charls was 1932, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charls is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charls in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 362 people with the name Charls, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,958 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 Charls 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 Charls?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charls leans strongly male. 358 people counted with this name were male (97.5%), compared with 9 female bearers (2.5%). 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 Charls?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charls is White at 60.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.7%). 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 Charls most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charls in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.8% (220 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 Charls in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charls a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charls 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 Charls still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charls 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 Charls 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 Charls?
You can see how many people have the name Charls on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.