Charlotte was once a place that required a resident to follow the name of the city with the words North Carolina if you wanted people to know where and what you were referring to.
Not anymore.
Now the city is a sprawling behemoth covering over 320 square miles with a population in the city proper that’s expected to reach more than 1 million by year’s end. The Charlotte metro population currently sits at 2.41 million and continues to increase at a similarly rapid pace.
Recognized as one of the fastest growing major cities in the United States, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance says that an estimated 135 new people move to the city and surrounding area every day. Other reports place that number at 150.
If you’re a Charlotte native or even if you’ve spent a good portion of your life here, chances are you may know the city has a few alternate nicknames. Among them, Hornet’s Nest, The CLT, Banktown and — most notably — The Queen City.
You can see references to that last moniker all over the city in logos that blend the name Charlotte with a rather queenly crown in official city and civic logos, sports teams, public facilities and even the city flag.
A visiting friend who has lived around the globe once said to this writer, “How can you not love a city that puts crowns on its garbage cans?”
It’s a name that’s frequently met with a chuckle from the city’s LGBTQ+ community and sometimes leaves recent transplants scratching their head.
So why is Charlotte referred to as the Queen City? The answer isn’t hard to find, but pop culture redefinitions exist aplenty.
For example: in the last two decades of the 20th century, community members in New York City produced an LGBTQ+ news program and distributed it via various public access cable television stations (this was before the internet). During coverage of one of the city’s Pride marches, two lone gay men were spotted in the parade carrying a large banner with the words “The Queen City” in large letters covering most of the horizontal canvas and “Charlotte, North Carolina” in smaller letters below. The parade commentators spotted the men immediately and pointed them out, while attempting to explain the meaning behind the sign.
Clearly, that’s not why Charlotte has the alternate nickname, but considering the size of our community, it’s not surprising we’ve whole-heartedly adopted it as our own.
Before we get down to the nuts and bolts, it’s important to mention North Carolina isn’t the only state with a city or town named Charlotte (although we are the most well-known and the largest). Other residential areas bearing the name can be found across the country. Unincorporated regions exist in Arkansas, Illinois and Louisiana. Towns and cities can be found in Maine, Michigan, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont (the next largest, with a population of approximately 4,000).
Our Namesake
Long before Charlotte became a major American banking center, a destination for professional sports and one of the fastest-growing cities in the South, its name belonged to a teenage German princess who had never seen North America and would never visit the city that carries her name.
Charlotte was named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III of Great Britain. Her connection to the city began in the 1760s, when North Carolina colonists were looking for names for a newly created county and the town that would become its seat.
More than 250 years later, the queen’s name remains woven into the identity of the city.
Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born May 19, 1744, in Mirow, a small town in the northeastern German duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick and Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a relatively small and politically unimportant German territory, but Charlotte’s life changed dramatically when she became a candidate to marry the newly crowned British king.
George III had become king in 1760 at age 22 and was unmarried. His advisers wanted him to marry quickly, preferably to a Protestant European princess. Charlotte was eventually selected, in part because she came from a small German state and was considered unlikely to have strong political ambitions.
The future queen left Germany for Britain in August 1761. Her journey across the English Channel was difficult, with the royal party encountering several storms at sea. She finally arrived in England on Sept. 8.
There was little time for a traditional courtship. Charlotte and George III met for the first time on the day she arrived in England. In approximately six hours, they were married at the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace. Their coronation followed two weeks later at Westminster Abbey.
Charlotte was only 17. Her marriage to George produced 15 children, including the future King George IV.
Despite the enormous demands of royal life, she developed interests that extended well beyond raising her family. She supported the arts, took an interest in botany and natural history, and played a role in expanding the royal botanical gardens. She was also an important patron of music.
The Georgian Papers Programme, which draws on documents preserved in the Royal Archives, describes her as a figure who has often been overshadowed by her husband and son.
A particularly intriguing aspect of Queen Charlotte’s legacy is a continuing historical debate over her ancestry. Some historians have said that she may have had African ancestry through a distant Portuguese royal lineage, and portraits of the queen have fueled speculation about her appearance. National Geographic describes the question as unresolved, rather than established fact.
How Charlotte came to North Carolina
In 1762, Mecklenburg County was created from part of Anson County. Colonial leaders named the new county Mecklenburg in honor of Charlotte’s German homeland, Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The county seat was then established in the developing community that would become Charlotte. In 1768, local leaders moved to formally establish the town.
The decision was not merely sentimental. Naming the community for the new queen was also smart colonial politics. Local leaders wanted the emerging settlement to become the political and commercial center of Mecklenburg County.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s historical account says the founders believed naming the town for the queen could help win favor with the British Crown and make the community an attractive location for the county courthouse. In other words, Charlotte’s name began partly as a political strategy.
The irony of the name selection would become striking in a matter of just a few years.
From royal namesake to “Hornet’s Nest,” Charlotte may have been named to honor the wife of the British king, but the community soon became deeply hostile to British rule.
During the American Revolution, Mecklenburg’s residents became prominent opponents of the Crown. The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, traditionally dated May 20, 1775, is said to have declared the county independent of British authority. Historians continue to debate the document’s precise origins and authenticity, but its place in local tradition is firmly established.
In 1780, British Gen. Charles Cornwallis passed through Charlotte during the Revolutionary War. Local resistance was so fierce that Cornwallis reportedly referred to the settlement as a “hornet’s nest” of rebellion.
As previously mentioned, the phrase became another enduring nickname for Charlotte.
Thus, the city eventually became famous for a curious contradiction: a fiercely American revolutionary community carrying the name of the British king’s wife.
Queen Charlotte herself never came to North Carolina. She died in 1818, at age 74, after a 57-year marriage to George III. Yet her name survived not only in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County but in the identity of the region itself.
Today, the city officially embraces its royal connection. Charlotte remains known as the Queen City, a nickname that traces directly to the German princess who became a British queen — and whose name colonial North Carolinians chose in the hope that royal favor might help establish their new town.
The strategy worked, although probably not quite as its founders expected. The town has grown into one of America’s major cities, while the monarchy it was named to honor eventually disappeared from American life altogether.
The history of Charlotte, the teenage princess who would become a queen, however, remains.
If you’d like to see a representation of how she is portrayed via the entertainment industry, you should watch the series “Bridgerton” before you move on to “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.” While entertaining, keep in mind storylines have been adapted and modified for television and are presented through the director’s eyes.
You can also find portraits of her in the city’s Mint Museum and statues representing her in uptown Charlotte and the city’s airport.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
