Charles
Charles holds the #48 spot in the 2025 national count, as settled as a name gets. Its high-water mark came in 1947, which makes it a grandparent-generation name enjoying its afterlife.
What Charles carries
Charles · Teutonic
“man”
Source: Charlotte M. Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), see our sources.
Charles’s free Name Kit
Five printables for Charles, drawn in your browser at print size the moment you ask: a name print for the wall, a nursery sign, a tracing sheet, a shortlist sheet, and twelve sibling names with the reason for each. Letter size, 300 dpi, in the site’s own hand.
- Name print Meaning, origin and the popularity curve on one sheet, ready for a frame.
- Nursery sign The name big and bright, for a door, a shelf or the top of a dresser.
- Tracing sheet The name in dotted letters, with room to go over it again and again.
- Shortlist sheet A page for weighing names side by side: initials, nicknames, how it sounds with yours.
- Sibling names sheet Twelve names that go with this one, each with the reason, from the sibling matcher.
Name print
Meaning, origin and the popularity curve on one sheet, ready for a frame.
Nursery sign
The name big and bright, for a door, a shelf or the top of a dresser.
Tracing sheet
The name in dotted letters, with room to go over it again and again.
Shortlist sheet
A page for weighing names side by side: initials, nicknames, how it sounds with yours.
Sibling names sheet
Twelve names that go with this one, each with the reason, from the sibling matcher.
Print on plain letter paper or heavier card; the sign and the print look best on matte stock.
Charles since 1880
Charles peaked in 1947 at #9; #48 in 2025.
United States national data, Social Security Administration, through 2025, how we use it.
Where Charles is most common
Charles is most common in District of Columbia: 1.35% of the state's recorded boys' names in 2025. Vermont (1.32%) and Alaska (1.23%) follow.
Share of the state's recorded names for that sex, from the Social Security Administration's state file; a name is listed in a state only when five or more babies received it there that year.
Names that sit near Charles
Same shelf of the library: origin, era and shape, scored deterministically.
Robert
#92 in 2025 · Teutonic
Richard
#234 in 2025 · Teutonic
William
#9 in 2025 · Teutonic
Charlie
#133 in 2025 · Teutonic
Carlos
#150 in 2025 · Teutonic
Axel
#79 in 2025 · Teutonic
Ella
#29 in 2025 · Teutonic
Audrey
#86 in 2025 · Teutonic
Browse: names starting with C · Teutonic names · all names
About Charles
How common is Charles today?
Charles holds the #48 spot in the 2025 national count, as settled as a name gets. The chart above draws the whole run since 1880, from the Social Security Administration's public data.
Does Charles have a meaning on record?
In our cited reference the recorded gloss is “man”, of Teutonic origin (Charlotte M. Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884)).
What names go with Charles?
By our fixed recipe the closest are Robert, Richard and William, scored on origin, era, shape and how common they are. The sibling matcher runs the same recipe against the names already in your house.
Get Charles’s free Name Kit
Five printables made in your browser: a name print for the wall, a nursery sign, a tracing sheet, a shortlist sheet and twelve sibling names with the reason for each. Yours in a moment, for one email.
Make the kitThe book is in the works
A printed picture book where Charles earns every letter of their own name, page by page. See the preview pages and hear when it is ready.
Preview the book