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Charles vs Charlesetta

American parents have registered 2,447,135 Charleses since 1880, against 1,303 Charlesettas. Charles is still ahead, with 5,908 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Charles against Charlesetta, 1880 to 2025 0 12.5k 25k 37.5k 50k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Charles Charlesetta

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Charles has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1959, when Charles had 30,947 and Charlesetta had 43.

Side by side

  Charles Charlesetta
Total US births 2,447,1351,303
Most in one year 40,91943
Babies in 2025 5,908under 5
Estimated living today 1.2 million870
Median age today 5966
Peak year 19471952
Best rank 9th boys1,469th girls
Rank in 2025 48thunranked
First recorded 18801914
Girls / boys 12,476 / 2,434,6591,303 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Charlesettas alive today are over 66; half the Charleses are over 59. That is 7 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Charles and Charlesetta.