About Charles

Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form Charles of the Proto-Germanic name ᚲᚨᚱᛁᛚᚨᛉ (in runic alphabet) or *karilaz (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was Ċearl or Ċeorl, as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. 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. Some Germanic languages, for example Dutch and German, have retained the word in two separate senses. In the particular case of Dutch, Karel refers to the given name, whereas the noun kerel means "a bloke, fellow, man". == Etymology == The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun *karilaz meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< 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 Charles is "old man", from Indo-European *ĝer-, 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.In some Slavic languages, the name Drago (and variants: Dragomir, Dragoslav, etc., all based on the root drag 'dear') has been used as an equivalent for Charles (Karel, etc.). This is based on the false etymology deriving Carl from Latin carus 'dear'.