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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shantel with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Shantel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,631 people with the first name Shantel, which placed it at #2,715 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
#2,715
National first-name rank
People counted
8.6K
8,631 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shantel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shantel is Black at 47.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.1%) and Hispanic (14.1%). 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 Shantel 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 Shantel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.7% · 4,117
- White29.1% · 2,514
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 1,219
- Two or more races5.4% · 464
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 163
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 154
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)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shantel appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,630 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
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.
How common was Shantel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,631 people with the name Shantel, or 2.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,715 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 Shantel 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 Shantel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shantel appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,630 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Shantel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shantel is Black at 47.7%. The next largest groups are White (29.1%) and Hispanic (14.1%). 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 Shantel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shantel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.7% (4,117 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 Shantel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Shantel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shantel 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 Shantel 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 share the name Shantel?
You can see how many Americans are named Shantel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.