Charles

See also charles

English

Etymology

From the French Charles, from the Old High German Karl, from the Proto-Germanic *karlaz (“person, free man”); compare the English word churl and the German Kerl.

Proper noun

Charles

1. A male given name.
   • 1599 William Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act I, Scene II:

     Charles the Great / Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French / Beyond the river Sala, in the year / Eight hundred five.

   • 1844 Edgar Allan Poe: Thou Art the Man:

     - - - there never was any person named Charles who was not an open, manly, honest, good-natured, and frank-hearted fellow, with a rich, clear, voice, that did you good to hear it, and an eye that looked at you always straight at the face, as much as to say: "I have a clear conscience myself, am afraid of no man, and am altogether above doing a mean action." And thus all the hearty, careless,'walking gentlemen' of the stage are very certain to be called Charles. ( Note: Charles turns out to be the villain of this story.)

   • 1988 Ed McBain: The House That Jack Built: page 212:

     - - - spoke the way the English do, funny, you know? His name was Roger, I think. Or Nigel. Something like that." "How about Charles?" "Charles? Well, yes, it could have been.Charles does sound English, doesn't it? Their prince is named Charles, isn't he?"

2. A patronymic surname.

Usage notes

Common given name since the Middle Ages.

Related terms

• diminutives: Charley, Charlie, Chuck, Chas.
• variants: Carl, Carroll, Karl, Cathal
• feminine forms: Carla, Carly, Carol, Carole, Carolina, Caroline, Callie, Carrie, Charlene, Charlotte

Translations

given name

Bengali: চার্লস (bn) Breton: Charlez (br) m. Catalan: Carles (ca) m. Chinese: Mandarin: 查理 (zh) Czech: Karel (cs) m. Danish: Karl (da), Carl (da) Dutch: Karel (nl) m., Charel (nl) Esperanto: Karlo (eo) Estonian: Kaarel (et) Finnish: Kaarle (fi), Kaarlo (fi) French: Charles (fr) German: Karl (de) Greek: Κάρολος (el) m. Hawaiian: Kale Hungarian: Károly (hu) Icelandic: Karl (is)

Irish: Séarlas (ga) m. Italian: Carlo (it) m. Latin: Carolus (la) Latvian: Kārlis (lv) m. Lithuanian: Karolis (lt) m. Macedonian: Чарлс (mk) (Charls) m. Maltese: Karlu (mt) m., Karmenu (mt) m., Karmena (mt) f. Manx: Çhalse (gv) m. Norwegian: Karl (no) Polish: Karol (pl) m. Portuguese: Carlos (pt) m. Romanian: Carol (ro) Russian: Карл (ru) (Karl) m. Slovak: Karol (sk) m. Slovene: Drago, Dragotin, Karel Spanish: Carlos (es) m. Swedish: Karl (sv)

Anagrams

• larches

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French

Proper noun

Charles m.

1. A male given name, cognate to English Charles

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Old French

Alternative forms

• Carles
• Karles

Proper noun

Charles m. (nominative singular Charles)

1. A male given name, cognate to English Charles

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Swedish

Proper noun

Charles

1. A male given name borrowed from English and French.