Concerns with Charles

Charles is nice and people will call him Charles. Later on, if he agrees, he might be Chas or Charlie. So what? It's a good, classic name. Diminutives (even if they are longer), are friendly.

What about Chuck?

@PuppyPowerPowder, my late mother (from the west of Ireland) always pronounced it Char-less!

I know a couple of Charles. Never Charlie.
It's a bit easier these days too as preschool/nursery/schools ask on forms what your child is to be "known as", so it's already clear to teachers who wants to be known as Charlie/Ollie or whatever and who is to be known as Charles/Oliver etc

My name is typically shortened, but I pretty much am always called by the long version, as I prefer it and it just seems more like 'my' name. Only my Nana and brother ever shorten it, and there was also one work place where a few people seemed to find it hard.
I don't think you'll have a problem.

I have worked with at least 5 men called Charles. All were Charles never ever Charlie.

I know a 17 year old Charles. Everyone calls him Charles!

James and Charles are lovely names.

I have a brother who is a James, he has always been James, I think unless you introduce a nickname then people will just call him his name.

Charles doesn’t flow nicely off the tongue, but it’s a lovely classic name and has the option of a nice shorter version/nickname..

The (adult) Charles I know has always gone by 'Chaz', his choice, his mother hates it! Do you mind Chaz/Chas?

I think people will tend to try to shorten it, more so than with James. Just nip it in the bud.

I think comparing it to James is well, not comparable. James as a name has been popular forever. Charles less so, but it has a huge popularity surge recently where mainly it has been used in the form of Charlie. Therefore Charles is very rare, James isn’t.

The "Lz" endings is hard to say.

Plus, in a Scottish accent it sounds like "chaddles".

I know a James who is always James and a Charles who is always Charles. Both adults.

Just politely correct people that it’s Charles, not Charlie, if they make that mistake. Even if they are doing it to be spiteful/difficult, they will get sick of you correcting them every single time. You managed to keep DS1 as James, I imagine it would be the same with Charles.

and I've never heard anyone use the pronunciation 'char-less' personally.

Well, like I said, it's regional and generational, so unless you live where I do, I'd be surprised if you had.

It's hard to know why some dialects find certain combinations of sounds difficult. A lot of RP speakers seem to struggle with the combination of 'x' and 'th' in 'sixth' and say 'sickth' instead, though I've never found it an issue.

I don't really understand why people find Charles difficult to say though, and I've never heard anyone use the pronunciation 'char-less' personally. I really don't find it any more difficult to say the s on the end rather than the 'I' sound.

I've taught a number of children names Charles and Charlie with no issues. Never heard a young one called Chas so far yet.

My godson is Charles. He's 1w now and much prefers being called Charles in general. He does get called Charlie as well, but more so when he was younger as that's what he liked then. His mum has always called him Charles. We vary between Charlie and Charles (plus another nickname) as for most people.

But it is perfectly possible to ask people to use the full name and they should respect that.

However you also have to accept that people will try to use the pet form and decide whether it is going to bother you enough to be worth it or not.

This will be especially so once he goes to school. Even at 4 years old children often have their own preferences - we ask all our new starters which name they prefer (we ask the child more so than the parent) and respect what they say as teachers, but it's hard to police other children.

I know a female Charlie (full name) that gets shortened to Charls!

Charles is the most wonderful name. I love it. I wouldn’t want it to be changed to Charlie either. Just be firm and thorough when correcting people if they get it wrong. I certainly wouldn’t shorten it if I met a little Charles. But maybe think of a shortening you prefer? Chet is certainly better than Charlie.

I have a Matthew. He's only ever been Matthew to family. Every single person at his school calls him matt.Teachers etc

I have 2 DBros with names that are commonly shortened. Dbro1 has a family NN, his school friends call him another NN but everyone who has met him since he left school calls him by his full name because that is how he introduces himself. Dbro2 is always called his full name by the family but his friends all call him by his NN. Both in their 40s.

It will ultimately be up to your DS what people call him and he will no doubt go by different names over his life.

Ds2 (13) has a friend called Charles. He's always been Charles, even amongst his friends.

Charles isn’t the easiest word to say, it sounds like a noise.

Another one here who finds Charles a mouthful. Just keep correcting people who shorten it until they get the idea. Some may always shorten it even with correction. Just ignore, its not worth stressing over.

Just correct people. My child has an unusual three-syllable name, and prefers the full thing, so that's what people call him.

I do agree with a pp that Charles is a slightly more complicated name to pronounce that many other similar standard classics the 'rl' closely followed by the 's' ending does (certainly for me) require a bit more active pronunciation than, say, 'Chas' or 'Charlie'. Plus the older generation where I'm from people of 80 or over -- pronounce it 'CHAR-less' with two separate syllables, which is a bit annoying.