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Chanetta vs Charlie

American parents have registered 224,639 Charlies since 1880, against 80 Chanettas. Charlie is still ahead, with 4,620 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Chanetta against Charlie, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Chanetta Charlie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Charlie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1979, when Chanetta had 11 and Charlie had 768.

Side by side

  Chanetta Charlie
Total US births 80224,639
Most in one year 114,620
Babies in 2025 under 54,620
Estimated living today 80117,000
Median age today 4417
Peak year 19791919
Best rank 5,751st girls66th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked145th
First recorded 19501880
Girls / boys 80 / 040,359 / 184,280

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Chanettas alive today are over 44; half the Charlies are over 17. That is 27 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Chanetta and Charlie.