Old German karl, "free man" — free man. Charlemagne's name became the Slavic word for king, kral.
Charles ranks 48th among American boys in 2025, with 5,908 born that year. Its best year was 1947, when 40,919 babies were given the name, ranking 9th. The typical living American called Charles is about 66 years old today. It is relatively most common in District of Columbia, where it accounts for 0.75% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.