Humanverse

Charletta vs Charlie

American parents have registered 224,639 Charlies since 1880, against 1,106 Charlettas. Charlie is still ahead, with 4,620 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Charletta against Charlie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Charletta Charlie

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

Charlie 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 1974, when Charletta had 33 and Charlie had 572.

Side by side

  Charletta Charlie
Total US births 1,106224,639
Most in one year 364,620
Babies in 2025 under 54,620
Estimated living today 940117,000
Median age today 5317
Peak year 19681919
Best rank 1,999th girls66th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked145th
First recorded 19211880
Girls / boys 1,106 / 040,359 / 184,280

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 Charlettas alive today are over 53; half the Charlies are over 17. That is 36 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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