Charlsie
A feminine diminutive form of the name Charles, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 899 living Americans carry the first name Charlsie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlsie today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlsie births was 1930 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlsie. 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
899
~ 1 in 381,262 Americans
Peak year
1930
59 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,787
Tracked since 1897
Census
Charlsie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 997 people with the first name Charlsie, which placed it at #12,465 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
#12,465
National first-name rank
People counted
997
997 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlsie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlsie is White at 81.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Charlsie 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 Charlsie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.7% · 815
- Black or African American10.1% · 101
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 34
- Two or more races3.4% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 2
Popularity
Charlsie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlsie from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 397 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
Charlsie 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 Charlsie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charlsies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Charlsie, while Virginia, Mississippi, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charlsie
The name Charlsie is a relatively modern invention, likely originating in the late 19th or early 20th century as a feminized variation of the male name Charles. Charles is derived from the German name Karl, which itself comes from the Old English word "ceorl" meaning "free man" or "husband."
While the name Charles has a long and well-documented history, with numerous kings, philosophers, and historical figures bearing the name, the variant Charlsie is much more obscure. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Charlsie can be found in the 1880 United States Census, where it is listed as the given name of a young girl born in Tennessee.
In the early 20th century, a woman named Charlsie Hayden (born in 1892) gained some renown as a vaudeville performer and actress, appearing in several Broadway productions and silent films. Another notable figure was Charlsie Garrett (1907-1965), an American painter and illustrator known for her works depicting Native American life and culture.
Moving into the mid-20th century, Charlsie Ella Lewis (1921-2008) was a prominent African American educator and civil rights activist who played a key role in the desegregation of schools in Oklahoma. In the field of literature, Charlsie Russell (1919-2013) was a celebrated author and poet from Mississippi, known for her works exploring Southern culture and the experiences of women.
More recently, Charlsie Agro (born in 1955) is an American theologian and academic who has written extensively on the role of women in the Catholic Church and issues of social justice.
While not as widely used as other names derived from Charles, such as Charlotte or Carla, the name Charlsie has a unique charm and history, with a handful of notable individuals who have carried it over the past century and a half.
People
Charlsie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlsie 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
Charlsie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlsie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 899 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlsie 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 381,262 US residents.
Is Charlsie a common name?
We classify Charlsie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,065 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlsie most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlsie was 1930, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlsie is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlsie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 997 people with the name Charlsie, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,465 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 Charlsie 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 Charlsie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlsie appears almost entirely female. Of the 997 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 Charlsie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlsie is White at 81.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Charlsie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charlsie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.7% (815 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 Charlsie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlsie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlsie 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 Charlsie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlsie 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 Charlsie 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 Charlsie?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Charlsie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.