A female name. Italian Carlotta, f. form of Carlo (Charles); first given as a name to Carlotta (French Charlotte) of Savoy, wife of Louis XI of France. Charlotte was introduced into England in 1626 by the marriage of the 7th Earl of Derby to Charlotte de la Trémouille, whose name is usually spelt Charlet in contemporary records (Caroletta is also found in the 17th C). The name, however, remained rare until the marriage of George III in 1761 with Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who made the name popular as her predecessor had made that of Caroline. The popularity of the name, with the romantically inclined, may have been partly due to its use by Goethe for the heroine of his Sorrows of Werther (1774), and later to the Princess Charlotte, the d. of George IV. The 17th-C spelling Charlet shows that the pronunciation of the name at that time was much the same as it is now; but there is some evidence that early in the 19th C it was sometimes made a trisyllable. In a correspondence in Notes and Queries in 1908 Henry Bradley recalled that old people in Sheffield in his youth spoke of Charlottë Street; and another correspondent said he had quite recently heard a woman addressed as Charlotty. The usual abbreviation of the name is Lottie or Lotty (sometimes Totty), but Charlie is also occasionally used.

Probably from French Charlot, the pet-name for Charles. Carlota, or Charlotte, of Savoy, by marrying Louis XI, introduced Charlotte to the French royal house. Its popularity in England arrived with George the Third’s exemplary queen; a popularity probably increased by the sentimental aura attaching to the heroine in Goethe’s Werther. (Yonge; Dr. William Rose’s introduction to his translation of Werther, 1929.)

Teutonic (feminine) - Valiant,strong.