Primarily a boy's name · 99% boys
Origin: FrenchCharles is a male given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form Charles of the Proto-Germanic name ᚲᚨᚱᛁᛚᚨᛉ or *karilaz, whose meaning was "free man".
From Wikipedia
In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Charles yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.
Charles's best-ever rank, #4, was already set in 1880, the very first year this dataset covers — the same year Samuel, John, William, and Thomas each hit their own best-ever rank, a cluster of names whose positional peak arrived right at the start of what this dataset can track. The raw count didn't reach its own high, 40,779 births, until 1947, sixty-seven years later.
2,441,151 total births since 1880 makes Charles one of this batch's largest names by history. Its 2024 count, 5,593, sits 24% below where it was ten years back — a milder decline than Emily's or Abigail's despite the name's much longer run.
Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, and King Charles III cover science, literature, and monarchy across three centuries, the kind of namesake breadth that only names with an 1880-era rank peak tend to carry.
Why did you choose this name — or what does it mean to you? Approved stories appear on this page.
→ See names similar to Charles · Compare Charles with another name → · Popular names of the 1940s · Boys names starting with C
Rank is among all boys' names registered that year.
| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 5,348 | #4 |
| 1881 | 4,636 | #5 |
| 1882 | 5,091 | #5 |
| 1883 | 4,826 | #4 |
| 1884 | 4,802 | #5 |
| 1885 | 4,599 | #5 |
| 1886 | 4,533 | #5 |
| 1887 | 4,031 | #5 |
| 1888 | 4,591 | #5 |
| 1889 | 4,199 | #5 |
| 1890 | 4,061 | #5 |
| 1891 | 3,640 | #5 |
| 1892 | 4,319 | #5 |
| 1893 | 3,723 | #5 |
| 1894 | 3,788 | #5 |
| 1895 | 3,633 | #5 |
| 1896 | 3,639 | #5 |
| 1897 | 3,341 | #5 |
| 1898 | 3,557 | #5 |
| 1899 | 3,147 | #5 |
| 1900 | 4,098 | #5 |
| 1901 | 3,049 | #5 |
| 1902 | 3,361 | #5 |
| 1903 | 3,213 | #5 |
| 1904 | 3,406 | #6 |
| 1905 | 3,608 | #5 |
| 1906 | 3,607 | #6 |
| 1907 | 3,884 | #6 |
| 1908 | 3,929 | #7 |
| 1909 | 4,029 | #7 |
| 1910 | 4,784 | #7 |
| 1911 | 5,725 | #7 |
| 1912 | 11,070 | #7 |
| 1913 | 13,190 | #7 |
| 1914 | 16,937 | #7 |
| 1915 | 21,960 | #7 |
| 1916 | 23,612 | #6 |
| 1917 | 24,143 | #7 |
| 1918 | 26,921 | #5 |
| 1919 | 25,192 | #5 |
| 1920 | 28,309 | #5 |
| 1921 | 29,242 | #5 |
| 1922 | 28,839 | #5 |
| 1923 | 28,966 | #5 |
| 1924 | 30,460 | #5 |
| 1925 | 29,580 | #5 |
| 1926 | 29,521 | #5 |
| 1927 | 31,941 | #5 |
| 1928 | 31,244 | #5 |
| 1929 | 29,929 | #5 |
| 1930 | 31,867 | #6 |
| 1931 | 29,933 | #6 |
| 1932 | 31,093 | #6 |
| 1933 | 28,990 | #6 |
| 1934 | 29,791 | #7 |
| 1935 | 29,982 | #6 |
| 1936 | 29,100 | #6 |
| 1937 | 30,521 | #6 |
| 1938 | 31,152 | #6 |
| 1939 | 30,786 | #6 |
| 1940 | 31,690 | #6 |
| 1941 | 32,739 | #6 |
| 1942 | 35,855 | #7 |
| 1943 | 36,630 | #7 |
| 1944 | 34,663 | #7 |
| 1945 | 32,467 | #7 |
| 1946 | 38,212 | #9 |
| 1947 | 40,779 | #9 |
| 1948 | 38,678 | #9 |
| 1949 | 40,047 | #9 |
| 1950 | 39,097 | #9 |
| 1951 | 39,408 | #9 |
| 1952 | 38,865 | #9 |
| 1953 | 38,420 | #9 |
| 1954 | 37,467 | #10 |
| 1955 | 35,361 | #11 |
| 1956 | 35,239 | #11 |
| 1957 | 34,282 | #11 |
| 1958 | 32,243 | #11 |
| 1959 | 30,796 | #11 |
| 1960 | 29,665 | #13 |
| 1961 | 29,196 | #13 |
| 1962 | 27,588 | #15 |
| 1963 | 26,762 | #16 |
| 1964 | 25,903 | #17 |
| 1965 | 23,500 | #20 |
| 1966 | 22,251 | #20 |
| 1967 | 21,290 | #20 |
| 1968 | 21,569 | #20 |
| 1969 | 21,664 | #19 |
| 1970 | 22,412 | #21 |
| 1971 | 19,851 | #22 |
| 1972 | 16,969 | #23 |
| 1973 | 15,751 | #23 |
| 1974 | 15,151 | #23 |
| 1975 | 14,578 | #25 |
| 1976 | 13,923 | #26 |
| 1977 | 14,743 | #26 |
| 1978 | 14,845 | #27 |
| 1979 | 14,807 | #28 |
| 1980 | 14,958 | #29 |
| 1981 | 14,428 | #31 |
| 1982 | 14,311 | #31 |
| 1983 | 13,213 | #33 |
| 1984 | 12,942 | #33 |
| 1985 | 12,899 | #34 |
| 1986 | 12,625 | #34 |
| 1987 | 12,176 | #35 |
| 1988 | 12,108 | #37 |
| 1989 | 12,245 | #36 |
| 1990 | 11,999 | #38 |
| 1991 | 11,336 | #38 |
| 1992 | 10,470 | #43 |
| 1993 | 9,856 | #44 |
| 1994 | 9,018 | #43 |
| 1995 | 8,478 | #44 |
| 1996 | 8,247 | #43 |
| 1997 | 7,656 | #49 |
| 1998 | 7,848 | #48 |
| 1999 | 7,525 | #50 |
| 2000 | 7,524 | #51 |
| 2001 | 7,283 | #55 |
| 2002 | 7,208 | #58 |
| 2003 | 7,695 | #57 |
| 2004 | 7,652 | #56 |
| 2005 | 7,932 | #56 |
| 2006 | 8,013 | #60 |
| 2007 | 7,452 | #62 |
| 2008 | 7,288 | #63 |
| 2009 | 7,284 | #64 |
| 2010 | 7,105 | #63 |
| 2011 | 6,985 | #61 |
| 2012 | 6,945 | #62 |
| 2013 | 7,025 | #57 |
| 2014 | 7,360 | #51 |
| 2015 | 7,204 | #50 |
| 2016 | 7,125 | #52 |
| 2017 | 7,189 | #48 |
| 2018 | 6,663 | #53 |
| 2019 | 6,403 | #52 |
| 2020 | 6,243 | #46 |
| 2021 | 6,003 | #50 |
| 2022 | 5,934 | #50 |
| 2023 | 5,415 | #54 |
| 2024 | 5,593 | #51 |
