Name of the Day: Charlie
December 9
Charlie
A Charlie Brown Christmas aired for the first time on December 9, 1965. Charlie Brown is, of course, the principle character of the Peanuts cartoon, created by Charles M. Schulz.
The fictional Charlie Brown was named after a coworker of Schulz’s. Charles Schulz’s
own nickname was not Charlie or even Chuck but Sparky, after the horse Spark Plug in the Barney Google cartoon.
In 1965, Charlie was an almost totally male name, given to 1000 baby boys that year versus only 28 baby girls.
Today, Charlie one of the most popular nonbinary names, given almost equally to female and male babies. In 2022, 2322 baby girls and 2098 baby boys were named Charlie. And of course there are thousands of babies named Charlotte and Charles who are called Charlie, along with those given the variations Charleigh and Charley.
Charles is the French and English form of the German Karl and the Latin Carolus, meaning “free man”. It’s been one of the most popular royal names throughout Europe from the time of Charlemagne, most recently in the news at the name of England’s new monarch, King Charles III.