Charlotte

254,532 people in America carry this name — ranked #212 of 923.

A name being given more often than it was a generation ago.

Say it SHAHR luht

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

SH AA1 R L AH0 T — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 254,532 2020 Census
  • Rank #212 Common
  • As a surname 222 ranked #89,563 the other way round

What Charlotte means and where it comes from

Teutonic in origin, reading literally as “man”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Charlotte has been given

388,932 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2019, with 13,207 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Charlotte

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Charlotte Elizabeth — runs together
  • Charlotte Emily — runs together
  • Charlotte Cynthia — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Charlotte is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Charlotte used for boys or for girls?

0.1% men
254,269 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The states where Charlotte is most common

In New Hampshire the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • New Hampshire ×1.8
  • Virginia ×1.5
  • Vermont ×1.5
  • Maine ×1.5
  • Delaware ×1.4

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How Charlotte is spelled

Charlotte is how 15% of them spell it — 1,648,131 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 80.8%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 6.7%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 5.5%
  • Two or more races — 4.3%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.0%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.6%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Same syllables and stress as Charlotte

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The same name abroad

  • Lola Spanish
  • Line German
  • Lina German
  • Carl German
  • Lotty English
  • Lotta Swedish
  • Lotte German
  • Latte Lett
  • Kasch Dant
  • Karol Pol.|Slov
  • Karls Lett
  • Karlo Russ.|Ill
  • Karla Slov
  • Kalle Swedish

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Teutonic origin