A storybook for Charlie, the nickname that outgrew Charles

Where the name Charlie comes from

Charlie is the English pet form of Charles, which goes back to the old Germanic word karl, meaning "man" and, in many readings, "free man". Through the Frankish emperor Charlemagne — Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great — the name spread across Europe, and it reached Britain as a royal name, carried by Charles I, Charles II and, in our own time, King Charles III.

For centuries Charlie was purely a nickname: a Charles would be called Charlie by friends and family while the full name went on the paperwork. Scotland gave the diminutive one of its most famous bearers in Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, whose story still runs through Jacobite songs today. In the twentieth century the short form became a household word through comedians, cartoon characters and footballers, and the line between nickname and given name quietly disappeared.

From the 1990s onwards more and more parents in England and Wales began registering Charlie as the full name on the birth certificate, and over the last fifteen years or so it has been a regular in the upper reaches of the boys' rankings. It is also used for girls, which gives it a relaxed, unfussy feel — but on a boy it tends to read as warm, cheeky and approachable rather than formal. Parents who pick it often say they wanted something with the history of Charles without the starched collar.

One small curiosity: Charlie is the word for the letter C in the NATO phonetic alphabet, so pilots, sailors and soldiers say it hundreds of times a day. Few names have that kind of everyday presence.

Forms of Charlie and when they are used

• Charlie — The everyday form and, for many boys today, the full registered name. Friendly at home, perfectly fine at school and on a book cover.
• Charles — The formal root. Some Charlies are Charles on paper and only hear it on the register, at weddings or when they are in trouble.
• Charley — An older spelling of the same nickname, seen in Victorian and early twentieth-century records and still chosen now and then for a vintage look.
• Chaz / Chas — A breezier short form that tends to appear among friends as boys get older; Chas is also the classic written abbreviation of Charles.
• Chuck — The American nickname for Charles. Heard in films and on TV, but rarely used in Britain except as a joke.
• Charlie boy / Champ Charlie — Affectionate family versions — the kind of thing a grandparent says, and the kind of tone a bedtime story can pick up.