BabyNameLens · Girl names · Boy names
“Variant of Charlie — Free man” — Germanic, via French origin
Boy's name · #1827 in the US (2025) · Heirloom
Charley is an heirloom: its strongest era came around 1880, when it ranked #59. It has thinned since but never left the records — about 24,000 boys since 1880, ranked #1827 today. In all that time it has never once missed a year of the national records. For most of its history Charley was mostly a boys' name; since around 1989 most babies named Charley have been girls. Charley is a rare spelling of Charlie — about 3% of babies given the name are written this way; Charlie itself ranked #145 in 2025.
Around the world: about 1 in 18,000 boys in Canada (2024) · about 1 in 18,000 boys in Switzerland (2024).
Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 7 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.
Among 248 notable people named Charley:
Sports figures appear 3.06× more often than among typical names — e.g. Charley Paddock, American athlete and Olympic gold medalist (1900-1943).
Similar names: Karl · Roscoe · Karam · Harley · Lou · Marley
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