Charlyn
A feminine name of diminutive form meaning "little and feminine".
Name Census estimates that about 1,310 living Americans carry the first name Charlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charlyn today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charlyn births was 1947 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charlyn. 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 Charlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 261,645 Americans
Peak year
1947
42 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2022 SSA rank
#11,414
Tracked since 1915
Census
Charlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,719 people with the first name Charlyn, which placed it at #8,438 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
#8,438
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,719 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlyn is White at 55.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.7%) and Black (13.2%). 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 Charlyn 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 Charlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.8% · 960
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.7% · 235
- Black or African American13.2% · 227
- Hispanic or Latino11.6% · 200
- Two or more races4.6% · 79
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 18
Popularity
Charlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charlyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 310 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charlyn 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 Charlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Illinois, Texas recorded the most babies named Charlyn, while Utah, Michigan, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 29 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charlyn
The name Charlyn is believed to have its origins in the English language. It is a modern feminine form of the name Charles, which is derived from the Old German name "Karl" or "Karlaz", meaning "free man" or "husband". The name Charles gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly after the reign of Charlemagne, the famous Frankish king who ruled a large portion of Western Europe from 768 to 814 AD.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Charlyn can be traced back to the late 19th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Charlyn Payne, an American actress born in 1891, who appeared in several silent films during the 1910s and 1920s.
Another notable figure with the name Charlyn was Charlyn Reichert, an American professional baseball player born in 1916. She played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1940s and was one of the league's most talented hitters.
In the field of literature, Charlyn Harlow was an American author and poet born in 1930. She published several collections of poetry and was known for her vivid descriptions of nature and the human experience.
Moving into the realm of politics, Charlyn Brock was an American politician who served as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1989 to 1999. She was a vocal advocate for education reform and was instrumental in passing legislation to improve the state's public school system.
Lastly, Charlyn Woodard is an American stage and screen actress born in 1953. She has appeared in numerous Broadway productions and television shows, including roles in popular series such as Law & Order and The Wire. Woodard is also a respected acting teacher and has been honored with several awards for her contributions to the performing arts.
While the name Charlyn has its roots in the ancient Germanic languages, it has undergone various transformations and adaptations over the centuries. Today, it remains a unique and distinctive name, often associated with strength, independence, and creativity.
People
Charlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charlyn 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
Charlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,310 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charlyn 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 261,645 US residents.
Is Charlyn a common name?
We classify Charlyn as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,824 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Charlyn was 1947, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charlyn is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,719 people with the name Charlyn, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,438 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 Charlyn 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 Charlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,717 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Charlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charlyn is White at 55.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.7%) and Black (13.2%). 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 Charlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.8% (960 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 Charlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charlyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charlyn 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 Charlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charlyn 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 Charlyn 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 named Charlyn?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Charlyn at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.