Charles

Charlemagne, King of the Franks
Pronunciation	/tʃɑːrlz/ French: [ʃaʁl]
Gender	Mainly Male
Name day	November 4
Word/name	French from Germanic
Meaning	free man
Variant form(s)	Carl, Karl, Carlo, Carlos
Related names	Carl, Carlos (given name), Caroline, Charlotte

Charles is a masculine given name from the French form Charles of a Germanic name Karl. The original Anglo-Saxon was Ċearl or Ċeorl, as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England.

The corresponding Old Norse form is Karl, with the German form also being Karl. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as Karolus (as in Vita Karoli Magni), later also as Carolus.

The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun *karlaz meaning "free man", which survives in English as (< Old English ċeorl), which developed its deprecating sense in the Middle English period.

In the form Charles, the initial spelling ch- corresponds to the palatalization of the Latin group ca- to [tʃa] in Central Old French (Francien) and the final -s to the former subjective case (cas sujet) of masculine names in Old French like in Giles or James (< Latin -us, see Spanish/ Portuguese Carlos).

According to Julius Pokorny, the historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist, the root meaning of Karl is "old man", from Indo-European *, where the ĝ is a palatal consonant, meaning "to rub; to be old; grain." An old man has been worn away and is now grey with age.