Phonetic variant of Charlotte, feminine of Charles meaning 'free woman.'
Sharlotte is a phonetically spelled variant of Charlotte, a name with one of the longest and most aristocratic pedigrees in Western Europe. Charlotte is the French feminine diminutive of Charles, which derives from the Germanic Karl — meaning 'free man' or 'full-grown man' — a name made imperial by Charlemagne, the Frankish king who united much of Europe in the eighth century. Every Charlotte, in some sense, carries a syllable of that legacy.
The name crossed into English royal use via Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of George III, who gave her name to Charlotte, North Carolina, and dozens of other New World places. Literary Charlottes abound: Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell but gave her name permanently to the literary tradition of spirited, intellectual heroines. Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice offers one of Austen's most pragmatic female portraits.
B. White's spider who writes words in her web to save a pig — gave the name an association with quiet, self-sacrificing intelligence that endures in the American imagination. Sharlotte, with its 'Sh-' opening, softens the original's hard 'Ch-' and gives it a distinctly American, individualized character.
It follows a long tradition of creative respellings — Sharleen for Charlene, Sharise for Charisse — that mark a name as personally chosen rather than inherited. Parents who choose Sharlotte often want the elegance of Charlotte alongside a sense that the name belongs entirely and originally to their child.