Name Awesome

Charmian

Girls' name

Joy

Charmian has been given to 473 babies in the U.S. since 1914. 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 1970, with 18 recorded.

Babies named Charmian, 1986

1 in 445,000

Charmian over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Charmian: meaning, origin, and history

Joy

Ancient Greek

What Charmian means

Charmian means “joy”, associated with khárma.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Diminutive form of Ancient Greek χάρμα (khárma, “joy”). According to Plutarch, the name of a servant and advisor of Cleopatra.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Charmian (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Charmian is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Charmian comes through Ancient Greek χάρμα.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include χάρμα.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 473 girls were recorded with the name Charmian between 1914 and 1986. Its highest annual count was 18 in 1970; its best national rank was #2,484 in 1923.

How common is Charmian?

Charmian had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1986, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1986
1 in 445,000
8 of 3,556,724 births
Among girls only
1 in 214,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1986
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
308,168 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Charmian 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 1986 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 308,168 children born in 1986 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Charmian. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Charmians were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Charmian was born before 1949 — so the typical Charmian is around 76 today.

Median birth year
1949
About 76 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
22.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
41.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
230
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 22.4% of all recorded uses (106).

Is Charmian 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 1970 (18)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
48.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,484
1923

Spellings of Charmian

Charmian is not the most common spelling — Carman is, with 28.6% against Charmian's 5.6%.

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 Charmian is used

Across 1910–2025, Charmian was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 3,202,555 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

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. Charmian has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Charmian around the world

Where Charmian 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
    1997–2000
    #3,912
    in 2000
  • South Australia
    1952–2001
    #711
    in 2001

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

Charmian 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
#2,484
1923
Peak year
1970
18 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
1986
All-time count
473
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Charmian

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

CharlettCharlynnCharleaCharishCharlieeCharleseCharlottChauntelChaunceyChavonneChaitraCharlitaCharelleChaquitaCharlcieChanteleChastidyMeridianChannellChaundraCharlisaCharnitaCharnellChantale

Sibling names for Charmian

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 Charmian

Top names of 1970, Charmian's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1923Girls' names starting with C