Name Awesome

Charla

Girls' name

Free man, through Charles

Charla has been given to 8,026 babies in the U.S. since 1917. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1969, with 219 recorded.

Babies named Charla, 2023

1 in 663,000

Charla over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Charla: meaning, origin, and history

Free man, through Charles

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Charla means

Charla belongs to the name family reached through Charla → Charles. Its meaning is “free man”.

Origin, language, and formation

Charla is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Charles.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,026 girls were recorded with the name Charla between 1917 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 219 in 1969; its best national rank was #665 in 1968.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Charla?

Charla had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among girls only
1 in 321,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Charla sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Charla. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Charlas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Charla was born before 1967 — so the typical Charla is around 58 today.

Median birth year
1967
About 58 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
23.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
6,898
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 23.3% of all recorded uses (1,869).

Is Charla rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1969 (219)
Years since peak
56
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#665
1968

Spellings of Charla

Charla is not the most common spelling — Clara is, with 28.2% against Charla's 0.75%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Charla is used

Across 1910–2025, Charla was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 6,667 girls, against 1 in 29,434 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 6,667
  2. 2Kansas1 in 10,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 11,111
  4. 4Missouri1 in 12,500
  5. 5Colorado1 in 16,667
  6. 6Arkansas1 in 20,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 20,000
  8. 8Ohio1 in 20,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Charla has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Charla around the world

Where Charla ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2013
    #5,742
    in 2013
  • Canada
    1991–2004
    #2,405
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1977–2012
    #871
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Charla by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#665
1968
Peak year
1969
219 that year
First recorded
1917
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
8,026
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Charla

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CharliCharisChanteChantalChanelCharleyCharlyCharlesStarlaChanaChantelChayaSharlaChaseChandaChavaCharleeCharlineChanceChandlerChaneyChanellCharlizeChasity

Names with a curve like Charla

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Charla, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GinnyJaneenTanaAndraSandiBettinaJoleenLanitaCarynLesleeMartiLanette

Sibling names for Charla

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Charla

Top names of 1969, Charla's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1968Girls' names starting with C