Charlie is a masculine first name but has increasingly been given to girls in recent years.
The name Charlie isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Charlie ranks 210. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 10 were named Charlie. In the entire USA, approximately 181,080 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Charlie. That is 0.05 % of all living Americans.
The first name Charlie is an English pet form of the name Charles, which in turn is related to Karl. Karl can be traced back to the Old High German word ‘heri’, which gives a meaning of ‘army, war band’. Mostly the meanings ‘the free’ or ‘the capable’ are ascribed to Karl.
Did you know... that in the NATO phonetic alphabet, Charlie stands for the letter 'C'?
Charlie Brown
The cartoon character Charlie Brown is the main character in Charles M. Schulz' Peantus comic strips. With his distinctive personality, his struggles with self-doubt, and his close relationship with his loyal dog Snoopy he became a cultural icon and has remained popular with audiences of all ages for many decades. He first appeared in the comic strips in 1950. He is beloved for his prominent zigzag shirt and his love of baseball. Despite his good intentions, Charlie Brown is often the target of ridicule from his peers and struggles with feelings of inadequacy.
Charlie Chaplin (1889 – 1977)
The British actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin) was undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. During the silent film era he rose to fame by portraying his iconic character, "The Tramp" (1915), a lovable and hapless vagabond who became a cultural icon. Chaplin was a prolific filmmaker, directing and starring in some of the most influential films of the early 20th century, including "City Lights" (1931) and "Modern Times" (1936). Despite controversies in his personal life, Chaplin remains one of the most important figures in the history of cinema.
Charlie Sheen (*1965)
The American actor Charlie Sheen (born Carlos Irwin Estévez) is known for his roles in movies such as "Platoon" (1986) and "Wall Street" (1987), as well as the television show "Two and a Half Men" (2003 – 2011) which earned him even wider recognition and multiple Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations. Sheen comes from a family of actors and decided to take his stage name Charlie Sheen a few weeks before high school graduation. His father allready acted under the name Martin Sheen. Sheen's personal life has been marked by controversies, including struggles with substance abuse and legal issues. Despite this, he remains a popular figure in popular culture.
Charlie Bucket
Roald Dahl's fictional character Charlie Bucket is the eponymous hero of the classic children's novel, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (1964). The young boy comes from a poor family who lives in a small house with his parents and four grandparents. Despite his difficult circumstances, Charlie is a kind and honest child who values his family above all else. He is given the opportunity of a lifetime when he finds a golden ticket that allows him to tour Willy Wonka's magical chocolate factory along with four other children. Throughout the story, Charlie proves himself to be brave, resourceful, and ultimately deserving of the greatest reward of all. The story has frequently been adapted for other media, including games, radio, theater and movies.
Charlie Watts (1941 – 2021)
As the drummer for the Rolling Stones, the English musician Charlie Watts (born Charles Robert Watts) was a member of one the greatest rock bands of all time. Unlike other Rolling Stones members, he remained on the drums from 1962 until his death in 2021 – for almost 60 years. Before he met his bandmates he played in London's rhythm and blues clubs with his former band Blues Incorporated. Having originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts used to design the record sleeves and tour stages for the Rolling Stones. Until today, he is often considered as one of the greatest drummers of all time: In 2016, the Rolling Stones Magazine ranked him 12th on the "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time" list.
Charlie Hunnam (*1980)
The English actor Charlie Hunnam (born Charles Matthew Hunnam) rose to fame with his roles as Pete Dunham in the drama film "Green Street Hooligans" (2005). His portray of Jax Teller in the FX series "Sons of Anarchy" (2008–2014) made him just as much of a crowd-pleaser – it earned him two nominations for Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor. He made his acting debut at the age of 18 in the teen drama series "Byker Grove" (1998) and since appeared in numerous films and shows, including the title role in "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002), "Pacific Rim" (2013), and "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" (2017).
When you hear the name Charlie, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Charlie? Are you also called Charlie? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
Founded as Big Wichita Valley in 1878, the small unincorporated community in Clay County was later renamed Charlie after Charlie Taylor, who bought the general store in town.
Charlie Creek is a stream in Hardee County and Polk County, Florida, which was named in honor of Charlie Apopka, chief of the Seminole.
Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Charlie is a staple in the country: Boys have been given the name Charlie for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Therefore, Charlie is one of the 442 boys' names, that have been given to newborn sons every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Charlie is a very special name that peaked in popularity over 100 years ago in the 19th century, ranking in the top 100 boys' names in our SmartGenius first name statistics: Placed at #20 Charlie has never been more popular than back in 1881.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Charlie was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
As many as 4,420 babies were named Charlie in the USA in 2022, ranking it #75 on the list of the most popular boys' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1993, when it was only ranked at #399 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics - back then 545 boys were named Charlie.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Charlie is one of them. However, Charlie is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Mississippi seem to particularly fancy this name – the 9,772 men called Charlie who live here are 0,489% of all male residents and push their name up to #36 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Mississippi. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 181,080 people with the name Charlie. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Charlie on position 212 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter C is a frequent initial letter for boys’ names. This is because 5.2% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D.
With seven letters, the name Charlie has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
With 5.2% of all boys' names that begin with a C, this first letter is thus much more common than the average of all letters. And which boys’ name beginning with C do you think is the most common in the US? The answer is... Charles.
If your name is Charlie and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Charlie, you can simply say:
Cat
Hat
Apple
Rocket
Lion
Igloo
Elephant
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Charlie
Charlie
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
C
H
A
R
L
I
E
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
C
H
A
R
L
I
E
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Charlie sounds like this:
