Shantel
French feminine diminutive of Jeanne, meaning "grace" or "God's grace".
Name Census estimates that about 9,758 living Americans carry the first name Shantel. It is a predominantly female name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Shantel today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shantel births was 1990 (493 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shantel. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Shantel is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 59 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
9.8K
~ 1 in 35,125 Americans
Peak year
1990
493 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
1993 SSA rank
#9,935
Tracked since 1963
Gender
Gender distribution for Shantel
Out of the 10,311 babies given the name Shantel since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Shantel as a male name
- Ranked #9,935 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1974 (9 births)
Shantel as a female name
- Ranked #11,956 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (486 births)
Popularity
Shantel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shantel from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 3,487 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
Shantel 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 Shantel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shantels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Shantel, while Nevada, South Dakota, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 188 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shantel
The name Shantel is a relatively modern variation of the French name Chantal, which itself is derived from the Latin name Cantiana. Cantiana was originally a locational name referring to the region of Kent in England, which was known as Cantia during the Roman era.
The name Chantal first appeared in France during the 12th century, likely as a result of the Norman Conquest of England. It was initially used as a surname for people who hailed from Kent, but over time it transitioned into a feminine given name.
The earliest recorded use of the name Chantal as a feminine given name dates back to the 13th century. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Chantal de Vitry, a French noblewoman who lived in the late 13th century.
The popularity of the name Chantal received a significant boost in the 17th century due to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, a French Catholic nun and founder of the Visitation Order. She was born in 1572 and canonized in 1767, inspiring many devout Catholics to name their daughters in her honor.
The variant spelling Shantel emerged in the 20th century, likely as an Anglicized version of the French name Chantal. One of the earliest known bearers of the name Shantel was Shantel VanSanten, an American actress born in 1985.
Other notable individuals named Shantel throughout history include:
1. Shantel Vazquez, an American singer and actress born in 1988.
2. Shantel Jackson, an American model and actress born in 1986.
3. Shantel Aguero, an American professional softball player born in 1991.
4. Shantel Yvonne Aaron, an American singer and songwriter born in 1982.
5. Shantel Makapugay, a Filipino actress and model born in 1995.
While the name Shantel is not as widely used as its French counterpart Chantal, it has gained a modest following in various English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and Canada.
People
Shantel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shantel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shantel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shantel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,758 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shantel 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 35,125 US residents.
Is Shantel a common name?
We classify Shantel as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,311 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shantel most popular?
The single biggest year for Shantel was 1990, when 493 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shantel is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Shantel a female name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Shantel 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.
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.