Masterpiece Generator Name Generator
How popular is the name Charles?
Births per year, rank history and how many Charleses are alive today.
Charles (male) sits just outside the top 100 boys' names in England and Wales, ranked 119th in 2025 with 437 babies given the name. The name peaked in 1904, when around 17,600 babies were given the name, the 7th most popular that year. Charles's popularity is double-peaked: strongest in the early 1900s with a second wave in the 1990s. Numbers have been falling in recent years. At least 420,000 babies have been named Charles in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Common short forms of Charles include Charlie and Charley.
The Charles you are most likely to meet is around 32 years old - or else around 69: the name has two living generations. Half of all Charleses born in England and Wales are between 28 and 70, and there are at least 110,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 males, there's roughly a 30% chance that at least one of them will be called Charles.
How many babies are named Charles each year?
Where does Charles rank among boys' names?
Where this data comes from
Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.
One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.
Common questions
When was the name Charles most popular?
Charles peaked in 1904, when around 17,600 babies in England and Wales were given the name.
How many people are called Charles?
At least 110,000 people named Charles born in England and Wales are alive today.
How old is the typical Charles?
Most living Charleses are between 28 and 70; the most common age is about 32. There is a second cluster around 69.
Is Charles becoming more or less popular?
Declining: recent figures are a fraction of the 1904 peak.