girl's name
Charlene
shar-LEEN
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 8
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 172,526
Northern Ireland
#451
2006 births
Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles. Our data marks it stable, and France ranks it 1316th — above both England and Wales and the United States, where its history was made.
- Charlene is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1952, when 3,557 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 33,488 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1888.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Charlene over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 5 |
| 1890s | 40 |
| 1900s | 139 |
| 1910s | 1,282 |
| 1920s | 5,570 |
| 1930s | 13,527 |
| 1940s | 26,850 |
| 1950s | 32,798 |
| 1960s | 24,718 |
| 1970s | 12,597 |
| 1980s | 8,967 |
| 1990s | 3,869 |
| 2000s | 1,741 |
| 2010s | 1,348 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 660 |
What Charlene means
Charlene means free man, or free woman in the feminine. The Germanic karl named a free peasant specifically, a man who belonged to no lord.
Where Charlene comes from
Charlene is a twentieth-century feminine of Charles, from the Germanic karl — a free man of the ordinary class, as opposed to a noble or a serf. The word went in both directions: upward into Charlemagne, Carolus Magnus, whose name became the Slavic word for a king, and downward into the English churl, a boor. Charlene belongs to a large family of feminines — Carol, Caroline, Carla, Charlotte, Charmaine and Carrie — that reached the same Germanic common noun by different national routes, and it is the most recently formed of them.
Charlene in use
Charlene peaked in the United States in 1952, when 3,557 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now ranks 1316th in France on 25 births, 1951st in the United States on 99 and 2376th in England and Wales on 12, across 172,526 lifetime births in four of the seven markets we track. France places it above both English-speaking markets.
How popular is Charlene?
In 2025, Charlene was given to 99 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Charlene is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Charlene is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Charlène | Charlène is Charlene written with a grave accent in France, and the spelling parents there overwhelmingly choose: it ranks #1,316 in France, against #6,673 for Charlene. | 32,515 |
Names that peaked alongside Charlene
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Charlene also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Charlene over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Charlene
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Charlene in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Charlene
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Charlene — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Charlene
What does the name Charlene mean?
Free man, from the Germanic karl — a free peasant rather than a nobleman.
Is Charlene related to Charlotte?
Yes — both are feminines of Charles, formed at different times and by different routes.
How did karl come to mean free?
It named the free peasant class, above serfs and below nobles. The English churl came from the same word.
How popular is Charlene?
1316th in France, its strongest market, and 1951st in the United States.
Is Charlene a girl's or a boy's name?
Charlene is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Charlene?
Charlene has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Charlene?
Charlene is usually shortened to Char and Charlie.
Is Charlene a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Charlene currently ranks #1,316 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.