Scharlotte
A feminine name of German origin meaning "free person".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Scharlotte. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Scharlotte today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Scharlotte births was 1941 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Scharlotte. 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 Scharlotte is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Scharlottes were born before 1958.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Scharlotte. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1941
8 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1953 SSA rank
#4,953
Tracked since 1940
Census
Scharlotte in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 116 people with the first name Scharlotte, which placed it at #51,012 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
#51,012
National first-name rank
People counted
116
116 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Scharlotte
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scharlotte is White at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Two or More Races (6.9%). 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 Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.7% · 82
- Black or African American19.8% · 23
- Two or more races6.9% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 1
Popularity
Scharlotte: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Scharlotte from the 1940s through to the 1950s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 30 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Scharlotte remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte
The name Scharlotte is a German variant of the French name Charlotte, which is derived from the French masculine name Charlot, a diminutive of Charles. The name Charles itself is from the Germanic name Karl, which was derived from the common Germanic word "karl," meaning "free man" or "freeman." The name Scharlotte emerged as a regional spelling variation in certain parts of Germany.
The name Charlotte has its roots in the 9th century, when it was first used as a feminine form of the name Charles. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Charlotte of Lusignan, a 13th-century French noblewoman who was the Queen consort of Cyprus and Armenia. She lived from around 1222 to 1301.
In England, the name gained popularity after King Charles I named his daughter Charlotte in 1637. This princess, Charlotte of England, lived from 1637 to 1662. She was a granddaughter of King James I and became the Duchess of Tremouille through marriage.
Another notable figure in history with the name Scharlotte was Scharlotte Christine Sophie von Aldenburg, a German noblewoman who lived from 1668 to 1740. She was a Duchess of Saxe-Hildburghausen through her marriage to Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
In the 18th century, Scharlotte Fredericka of Brandenburg-Schwedt, born in 1745, was a Prussian princess and a member of the House of Hohenzollern. She lived until 1808 and was known for her intelligence and artistic talents.
Scharlotte Amalie of Denmark, born in 1706, was a Danish princess who lived until 1782. She was the daughter of King Frederick IV of Denmark and was known for her philanthropic work and support of the arts.
People
Scharlotte + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Scharlotte as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Scharlotte: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Scharlotte?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Scharlotte 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Scharlotte a common name?
We classify Scharlotte as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 48 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Scharlotte most popular?
The single biggest year for Scharlotte was 1941, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Scharlotte is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Scharlotte in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 116 people with the name Scharlotte, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,012 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 Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Scharlotte leans strongly female. 106 people counted with this name were female (97.2%), compared with 3 male bearers (2.8%). 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 Scharlotte?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Scharlotte is White at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Two or More Races (6.9%). 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 Scharlotte most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Scharlotte in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.7% (82 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 Scharlotte in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Scharlotte a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte 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 Scharlotte?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Scharlotte, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.