Chardonnay
A French name meaning "place abounding with thistles".
Name Census estimates that about 624 living Americans carry the first name Chardonnay. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Chardonnay today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chardonnay births was 1991 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chardonnay. 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 Chardonnay with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
624
~ 1 in 549,286 Americans
Peak year
1991
48 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2018 SSA rank
#16,187
Tracked since 1985
Census
Chardonnay in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 534 people with the first name Chardonnay, which placed it at #19,684 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
#19,684
National first-name rank
People counted
534
534 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Chardonnay
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chardonnay is Black at 70.6%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Hispanic (8.1%). 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 Chardonnay 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 Chardonnay at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.6% · 377
- White12.0% · 64
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 43
- Two or more races7.3% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Chardonnay: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chardonnay from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 361 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chardonnay 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 Chardonnay during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chardonnays live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Chardonnay, while New York, Michigan, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Chardonnay
The given name Chardonnay is derived from the name of the green-skinned grape variety used to make the popular white wine of the same name. The grape originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, with the first records of the variety dating back to the late 6th century CE.
While the origins of the grape's name are unclear, some linguistic experts believe it may be derived from the word "chardonneret," which means "goldfinch" in French. This theory suggests the grape was possibly named after the small yellow songbird due to the similarities in color between the bird and the ripe golden grapes.
Another hypothesis traces the name's roots to the village of Chardonne near Lausanne in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where some historical accounts suggest the grape variety may have been cultivated as early as the 4th century CE. However, the connection between the village and the grape remains uncertain.
Historically, the Chardonnay grape has been an important component in the production of many renowned French wines, including those from the Burgundy and Champagne regions. While the grape itself has been cultivated for centuries, the given name Chardonnay did not gain widespread popularity until the late 20th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Chardonnay was Chardonnay Beaver, an American singer and songwriter born in 1989. Other notable figures with the name include Chardonnay Parker, an American actress born in 1982, and Chardonnay Tongyik, a Thai model and beauty queen born in 1993.
In literature, the fictional character Chardonnay Munroe appears in the 2001 novel "Little Earthquakes" by Jennifer Weiner. Additionally, Chardonnay Brown is the name of a character in the 2010 novel "One Day" by David Nicholls.
While the name's origins are rooted in the world of winemaking, its increasing use as a given name in recent decades reflects the growing popularity of unique and unconventional monikers inspired by various sources, including food and beverage products.
People
Chardonnay + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chardonnay 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
Chardonnay: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chardonnay?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 624 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chardonnay 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 549,286 US residents.
Is Chardonnay a common name?
We classify Chardonnay as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 643 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chardonnay most popular?
The single biggest year for Chardonnay was 1991, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chardonnay is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Chardonnay in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 534 people with the name Chardonnay, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,684 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 Chardonnay 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 Chardonnay?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Chardonnay appears almost entirely female. Of the 525 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Chardonnay?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Chardonnay is Black at 70.6%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Hispanic (8.1%). 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 Chardonnay most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Chardonnay in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.6% (377 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 Chardonnay in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Chardonnay a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Chardonnay 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 Chardonnay still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Chardonnay 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 Chardonnay 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 many people are named Chardonnay?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Chardonnay, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.