Charon
Mythological name referring to the ferryman who carried souls across the river Styx.
Name Census estimates that about 1,010 living Americans carry the first name Charon. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Charon today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charon births was 1973 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charon. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 339,361 Americans
Peak year
1973
38 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2013 SSA rank
#12,470
Tracked since 1937
Census
Charon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,144 people with the first name Charon, which placed it at #11,297 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,297
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,144 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charon is Black at 52.4%. The next largest groups are White (32.3%) and Hispanic (8.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Charon described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Charon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.4% · 600
- White32.3% · 370
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 93
- Two or more races3.6% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Charon
Charon leans heavily female at 82.3% of total registrations, but 216 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Charon as a male name
- Ranked #12,470 in 2013
- 5 male births in 2013
- Peak: 1990 (13 births)
Charon as a female name
- Ranked #18,103 in 2008
- 5 female births in 2008
- Peak: 1973 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charon leans strongly female. 930 people counted with this name were female (82.1%), compared with 203 male bearers (17.9%).
Popularity
Charon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charon from the 1930s through to the 2010s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 285 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charon by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Charon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Charon
The given name Charon originates from ancient Greek mythology and literature. It is derived from the Greek word "Kharont-", which means "the ferryman" or "the fierce one". The name refers to the mythological figure Charon, who was the ferryman responsible for transporting the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron, which divided the world of the living from the realm of the dead.
Charon was an essential character in Greek mythology, appearing in various ancient texts such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, as well as Virgil's Aeneid. He was often depicted as an older man with a stern expression, holding a long pole used to guide his boat across the rivers of the underworld. Those who could not pay the fare for the ferry were doomed to wander the shores for a hundred years before being allowed to cross.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Charon can be found in the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who lived from 428 BC to 348 BC. In his dialogue "Phaedo", Plato describes Charon as the ferryman who guided the souls of the dead across the rivers of the underworld.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Charon. One of the most famous was Charon of Lampsacus, a Greek philosopher and historian who lived in the 5th century BC. He is known for writing a history of Persia and for his works on ethics and politics.
Another notable figure was Charon of Thebes, a Greek sculptor who lived in the 4th century BC. He is best known for creating the sculptures that adorned the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
In the field of astronomy, Charon is the name given to the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. It was discovered in 1978 by the American astronomer James W. Christy and named after the mythological ferryman by the discoverers of Pluto, Clyde W. Tombaugh and Venetia Burney.
In literature, the name Charon has been used by several authors, including John Milton in his epic poem "Paradise Lost" and Dante Alighieri in his "Divine Comedy". In both works, Charon is depicted as the ferryman who guides souls across the river Acheron into the underworld.
Lastly, Charon was the name of a character in the popular book and film series "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling. In the series, Charon is a minor character who works as the ferryman for the Hogwarts Express, transporting students across the Black Lake to the school's grounds.
People
Charon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charon as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Charon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,010 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charon going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 339,361 US residents.
Is Charon a common name?
We classify Charon as "Rare". It ranks above 90.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,217 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charon most popular?
The single biggest year for Charon was 1973, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charon is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,144 people with the name Charon, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,297 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Charon in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Charon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charon leans strongly female. 930 people counted with this name were female (82.1%), compared with 203 male bearers (17.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Charon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charon is Black at 52.4%. The next largest groups are White (32.3%) and Hispanic (8.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Charon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Charon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.4% (600 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Charon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charon a female name?
Yes, 82.3% of people registered as Charon in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Charon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charon in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Charon can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Charon?
See how many Americans are named Charon on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.