Chantell
A feminine name of French origin meaning "singer".
Name Census estimates that about 3,275 living Americans carry the first name Chantell. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Chantell today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chantell births was 1991 (155 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chantell. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Chantell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.3K
~ 1 in 104,658 Americans
Peak year
1991
155 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
1989 SSA rank
#8,083
Tracked since 1958
Census
Chantell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,969 people with the first name Chantell, which placed it at #5,688 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,688
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,969 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chantell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chantell is Black at 46.5%. The next largest groups are White (31.7%) and Hispanic (11.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Chantell described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Chantell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.5% · 1,382
- White31.7% · 940
- Hispanic or Latino11.9% · 353
- Two or more races6.1% · 181
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 60
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 53
Gender
Gender distribution for Chantell
Out of the 3,496 babies given the name Chantell since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Chantell as a male name
- Ranked #8,083 in 1989
- 5 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (5 births)
Chantell as a female name
- Ranked #13,788 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1991 (155 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chantell appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,958 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Chantell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chantell from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,079 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chantell by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Chantell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chantells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Louisiana, New York recorded the most babies named Chantell, while Virginia, Missouri, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 70 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Chantell
The name Chantell is a variant of the French name Chantal, which is derived from the Latin word "cantus," meaning "song." This name has its roots in medieval France and was likely first used as a surname.
Chantal was originally a masculine name, but over time, it transitioned into a feminine name. The earliest recorded use of Chantal as a first name dates back to the 12th century. In the 13th century, the name gained popularity among the French nobility, particularly in the regions of Burgundy and Champagne.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Chantal was Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, who lived from 1572 to 1641. She was a prominent figure in the Catholic Church and co-founded the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary with Saint Francis de Sales.
Another historical figure was Chantal Akerman, a Belgian filmmaker born in 1950 and died in 2015. She was known for her influential experimental films and was a pioneer in the avant-garde cinema movement.
In the literary world, Chantal Chawaf, a French writer born in 1943, gained recognition for her poetic and philosophical works exploring themes of feminism and sexuality.
The name Chantell, with its variant spelling, gained popularity in the English-speaking world in the 20th century. One notable figure with this spelling was Chantell Devine, an American singer and actress born in 1977, known for her roles in musicals and television shows.
Chantell Roser, born in 1987, is a South African professional wrestler and former model who has competed in various wrestling promotions around the world.
While the name Chantell has its roots in French culture, it has transcended linguistic and cultural boundaries, with variations in spelling and pronunciation found in different regions and communities around the world.
People
Chantell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chantell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Chantell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chantell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,275 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chantell going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 104,658 US residents.
Is Chantell a common name?
We classify Chantell as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,496 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chantell most popular?
The single biggest year for Chantell was 1991, when 155 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chantell is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chantell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,969 people with the name Chantell, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,688 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Chantell in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Chantell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chantell appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,958 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Chantell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chantell is Black at 46.5%. The next largest groups are White (31.7%) and Hispanic (11.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Chantell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Chantell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.5% (1,382 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Chantell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chantell a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Chantell in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Chantell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chantell in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Chantell can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Chantell?
You can see how many people have the name Chantell on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.