← Back to Victorian and Belle Époque
Boy · English pet form of a Germanic name
Charley
Say it: CHAR-lee
Meaning
A pet form of Charles, from Germanic karl 'free man'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A common spelling of Charlie in 1880s America.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 32,836 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1880, about 1 in 362 boys
- 641 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Charlie
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.