Charlotte already names a palace, a city and a dessert — its best job yet is naming the heroine of this book

Where the name Charlotte comes from

Charlotte is French: the feminine form of Charlot, itself an affectionate diminutive of Charles. The root is the old Germanic word karl, "a free man" — which is why Charlotte is usually glossed as "free woman," a meaning that tends to prove itself by the time its owner turns three.

The name swept the English-speaking world in the eighteenth century with Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. Her reach was remarkable: the city of Charlotte in North Carolina — still nicknamed the Queen City — was named in her honor, and by most accounts so was the charlotte, the molded dessert that borrowed her name for good. Add Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, built for an earlier queen of the same name, and few girls' names can claim so much real estate.

The name has literary credentials of its own, too. Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre under it, and generations of novelists since have reached for Charlotte whenever they needed a heroine who sounds both grounded and a little grand — a shortcut your daughter now benefits from every time her name appears in print.

In our own century the name has been unstoppable. It has held a place in the American top ten for over a decade, spent several years as the number-one girls' name in Australia, and got a fresh coronation in 2015 when Princess Charlotte of Wales was born. Parents keep choosing it for the same reason writers do: it sounds finished. Formal enough for a title page, warm enough to be called up the stairs at bedtime.

Lottie, Charlie, Lotta — what Charlotte answers to

• Lottie — The warm, at-home short form — the name of pillow forts, gap-toothed grins and hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. If she is Lottie in your kitchen, she can be Lottie in her story too.
• Charlie — The playground version: quick to shout across a field, happiest in trainers. Charlottes who climb higher than they are supposed to often turn out to be Charlies. Nine letters give a family room to negotiate — few names shorten in so many directions without losing themselves.
• Lotta — The brisk continental cousin, common wherever the name traveled through German and Scandinavian nurseries. Rarer in English — which makes it a lovely secret nickname to have. It travels well: a Lotta is recognized from Stockholm to Vienna without a word of explanation.
• Char — The one-syllable shorthand that tends to arrive in the school years, usually from friends. Efficient, casual, and proof the name scales down as gracefully as it dresses up.