Charley is a girls' spelling of Charlie, the nickname for Charles and Charlotte, which goes back to the Germanic karl and means "free man" or "free woman". Once strictly a boy's nickname, Charley crossed over to girls in the 2000s as parents fell for its tomboyish, friendly sound. As a girls' name Charley entered the US top 1000 in 2009, peaked at number 489 in 2014 and ranks number 760 in 2025.