Charly
Charly is given to both girls and boys: 48 girls and 16 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,262 among girls’ names and #5,650 among boys’, #4,750 among all names counting both); 3,833 Americans have been recorded with it since 1884 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,720 Americans named Charly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Charly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Charly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Charly is “a diminutive of the female given names Charlene and Charlotte, variant of Charley.”
Also “a diminutive of the male given name Charles, variant of Charlie.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Charly?
#3,262 among girls’ names, 2025
Charly fell from #2,299 in 2015 to #3,262 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 45.4 to 29.9 per million.
141 babies in 2022, the peak
Charly peaked in 2022, when 141 babies were given it (97 girls, #2,008 among girls’ names). The 64 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 45% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48 | #3,262 | 16 | #5,650 |
| 2024 | 82 | #2,267 | 38 | #3,170 |
| 2023 | 58 | #2,904 | 30 | #3,724 |
| 2022 | 97 | #2,008 | 44 | #2,879 |
| 2021 | 77 | #2,349 | 30 | #3,660 |
| 2020 | 86 | #2,117 | 32 | #3,427 |
| 2019 | 82 | #2,236 | 26 | #4,020 |
| 2018 | 63 | #2,717 | 31 | #3,544 |
| 2017 | 67 | #2,607 | 21 | #4,620 |
| 2016 | 86 | #2,227 | 21 | #4,644 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 81 | #2,299 | 26 | #3,998 |
| 2014 | 109 | #1,855 | 28 | #3,706 |
| 2013 | 71 | #2,513 | 34 | #3,195 |
| 2012 | 95 | #2,034 | 32 | #3,381 |
| 2011 | 79 | #2,353 | 32 | #3,373 |
| 2010 | 73 | #2,518 | 47 | #2,591 |
| 2009 | 70 | #2,620 | 52 | #2,456 |
| 2008 | 64 | #2,807 | 39 | #3,010 |
| 2007 | 79 | #2,399 | 51 | #2,478 |
| 2006 | 53 | #3,143 | 30 | #3,459 |
| 2005 | 68 | #2,528 | 55 | #2,183 |
| 2004 | 62 | #2,653 | 58 | #2,050 |
| 2003 | 48 | #3,090 | 34 | #2,852 |
| 2002 | 34 | #3,822 | 49 | #2,156 |
| 2001 | 34 | #3,796 | 45 | #2,247 |
| 2000 | 25 | #4,675 | 32 | #2,808 |
| 1999 | 33 | #3,645 | 28 | #2,948 |
| 1998 | 39 | #3,179 | 33 | #2,562 |
| 1997 | 28 | #3,913 | 21 | #3,360 |
| 1996 | 39 | #3,037 | 22 | #3,208 |
| 1995 | 32 | #3,426 | 20 | #3,317 |
| 1994 | 23 | #4,395 | 18 | #3,610 |
| 1993 | 33 | #3,356 | 13 | #4,475 |
| 1992 | 36 | #3,151 | 16 | #3,769 |
| 1991 | 37 | #3,036 | 14 | #4,030 |
| 1990 | 28 | #3,726 | 18 | #3,325 |
| 1989 | 38 | #2,880 | 17 | #3,334 |
| 1988 | 46 | #2,370 | 13 | #3,735 |
| 1987 | 48 | #2,237 | 10 | #4,289 |
| 1986 | 61 | #1,840 | 9 | #4,520 |
| 1985 | 48 | #2,178 | 7 | #5,227 |
| 1984 | 35 | #2,630 | 8 | #4,619 |
| 1983 | 23 | #3,447 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 18 | #4,193 | 5 | #6,522 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,179 | 5 | #6,429 |
| 1980 | 15 | #4,761 | 7 | #5,015 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,264 | 5 | #6,196 |
| 1978 | 16 | #4,284 | 6 | #5,156 |
| 1977 | 11 | #5,571 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 5 | #9,519 | 7 | #4,513 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,273 | 5 | #5,593 |
| 1974 | under 5 | 6 | #4,711 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 5 | #4,491 | |
| 1962 | under 5 | 5 | #4,131 | |
| 1956 | under 5 | 5 | #4,025 | |
| 1952 | under 5 | 5 | #3,822 | |
| 1942 | under 5 | 5 | #3,645 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 5 | #4,408 | |
| 1919 | under 5 | 5 | #4,258 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 7 | #3,275 | |
| 1912 | under 5 | 6 | #2,325 | |
| 1895 | under 5 | 5 | #1,105 | |
| 1890 | under 5 | 6 | #904 | |
| 1887 | under 5 | 5 | #954 | |
| 1884 | under 5 | 5 | #997 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Charly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,833 Americans recorded as Charly, 66% are girls and 34% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Charly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Charly, and how old are they?
3,720 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 3,833 Americans ever recorded as Charly. The median Charly alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 3,515 people named Charly (1,993 women and girls, 1,522 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,133 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 98 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 734 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,380 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Charly born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6 | #2,844 | 0.8× |
Where Charly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Charly is most over-represented in Utah: since 1910 it was given 3.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Charly with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 44,672 babies since 1880, Charly is the fourth most given (8.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 1,442 babies (4.4%), the third most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Charly
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Charly and names like it
- Compare Charly and CharleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCharly peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Charly since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Charly.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Charly alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.