Charlotta

History & Origin

Charlotta is the fuller, -a-ending form of Charlotte, especially at home in Sweden and Germany. Both descend from Charles and the Germanic karl, 'free man'. In America Charlotta appeared among immigrant and old-stock families who preferred the stately Continental spelling, keeping the royal, dignified feel of Charlotte with an extra formal flourish.

Charlotta was never common in the United States, drawing only a couple dozen girls a year even at its high, with scattered use across the twentieth century. A girl named Charlotta belonged to a grandmother's or great-grandmother's generation. With Charlotte now hugely fashionable again, the vintage Charlotta reads as a distinctive Continental variant riding that revival's coat-tails, though it remains rare.