Sharlyne
Of English origin, meaning "free woman" or "woman from the fortified place".
Name Census estimates that about 62 living Americans carry the first name Sharlyne. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sharlyne today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sharlyne births was 1946 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sharlyne. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sharlyne. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
62
~ 1 in 5,528,296 Americans
Peak year
1946
11 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2009 SSA rank
#12,300
Tracked since 1940
Census
Sharlyne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 185 people with the first name Sharlyne, which placed it at #40,305 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
#40,305
National first-name rank
People counted
185
185 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
32.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sharlyne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharlyne is White at 32.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.5%) and Black (23.2%). 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 Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White32.4% · 60
- Hispanic or Latino26.5% · 49
- Black or African American23.2% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.8% · 20
- Two or more races5.4% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 3
Popularity
Sharlyne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sharlyne from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 19 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne
The name Sharlyne is a variation of the French name Charlene, which is a feminine form of the masculine name Charles. The name Charles has its origins in the Germanic name Karl, meaning "free man" or "peasant freeman." The name Karl is derived from the Old High German word "karal," which means "man" or "husband."
The name Charlene, and consequently Sharlyne, gained popularity in the Middle Ages, particularly in France and other parts of Western Europe. It was often associated with nobility and royalty, as several prominent figures bore the name Charles or its variations.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Charlene can be found in the 9th century, when Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, ruled as the King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor. His reign, which lasted from 768 to 814 AD, was a significant period in European history, and his name became widely recognized and revered.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Charlene of Burgundy, born in 1192, was a countess and the wife of Theobald III, Count of Champagne. Her marriage and influence in the region contributed to the spread and popularity of the name.
During the Renaissance, the name Charlene gained further prominence. One notable figure was Charlene de Bourbon, born in 1516, who was a French noblewoman and the abbess of the Monastery of Saint-Croix in Poitiers.
In more recent history, the name Sharlyne has been relatively uncommon, but there have been a few notable individuals who bore this spelling variation. One such person was Sharlyne Woodards, an American actress born in 1957, known for her roles in films and television shows like "The Cosby Show" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."
Another individual with the name Sharlyne was Sharlyne Goldsboro, a former professional tennis player from the United States, who competed in the 1970s and 1980s.
While the name Sharlyne is not as widely used as its variants like Charlene or Charlotte, it carries a rich historical legacy and associations with nobility, royalty, and cultural significance, particularly in Western Europe and France.
People
Sharlyne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sharlyne 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
Sharlyne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sharlyne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 62 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sharlyne 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 5,528,296 US residents.
Is Sharlyne a common name?
We classify Sharlyne as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 80 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sharlyne most popular?
The single biggest year for Sharlyne was 1946, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sharlyne is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sharlyne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 185 people with the name Sharlyne, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,305 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 Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sharlyne appears almost entirely female. Of the 175 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Sharlyne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharlyne is White at 32.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.5%) and Black (23.2%). 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 Sharlyne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sharlyne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.4% (60 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 Sharlyne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sharlyne a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sharlyne 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 Sharlyne 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 have Sharlyne as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.