Shawntel
A feminine name derived from the French name Chantal, ultimately from Latin "cantare" meaning "to sing".
Name Census estimates that about 1,079 living Americans carry the first name Shawntel. It is a predominantly female name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Shawntel today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shawntel births was 1995 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shawntel. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 317,659 Americans
Peak year
1995
63 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1985 SSA rank
#7,421
Tracked since 1963
Census
Shawntel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 926 people with the first name Shawntel, which placed it at #13,143 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
#13,143
National first-name rank
People counted
926
926 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shawntel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawntel is Black at 47.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Hispanic (9.1%). 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 Shawntel 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 Shawntel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.8% · 443
- White33.7% · 312
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 84
- Two or more races5.4% · 50
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Shawntel
Shawntel leans heavily female at 98.5% of total registrations, but 17 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shawntel as a male name
- Ranked #7,421 in 1985
- 5 male births in 1985
- Peak: 1975 (7 births)
Shawntel as a female name
- Ranked #14,618 in 2011
- 7 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1995 (63 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shawntel leans strongly female. 875 people counted with this name were female (95.1%), compared with 45 male bearers (4.9%).
Popularity
Shawntel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shawntel from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 370 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
Shawntel 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 Shawntel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shawntels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Shawntel, while Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shawntel
The name Shawntel is a modern variant of the more traditional name Chantal, which originates from the French language. The name Chantal is derived from the Latin word "cantus," meaning "song" or "melody." It is believed to have emerged during the medieval period in France, around the 12th or 13th century.
While the exact origin of the spelling variation "Shawntel" is not entirely clear, it is believed to have developed in English-speaking regions, possibly as a way to reflect the pronunciation of the name more accurately. The prefix "Shaw" may have been added to represent the "sh" sound at the beginning of the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shawntel can be found in the United States in the late 20th century. However, there are no known historical figures or prominent individuals from earlier periods who bore this particular spelling variation.
Some notable individuals with the name Shawntel throughout history include:
1. Shawntel Smith (born 1984), an American reality television personality and broadcast journalist.
2. Shawntel Newton (born 1988), an American actress and model.
3. Shawntel Hebert (born 1981), an American beauty queen and Miss Louisiana USA 2008.
4. Shawntel Hislam (born 1986), a Canadian curler and member of the Saskatchewan women's curling team.
5. Shawntel Wion (born 1988), an American singer and songwriter.
It is worth noting that while the name Shawntel has gained popularity in recent decades, its roots can be traced back to the medieval French name Chantal, which itself has a rich linguistic heritage stemming from the Latin word "cantus."
People
Shawntel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shawntel 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
Shawntel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shawntel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,079 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shawntel 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 317,659 US residents.
Is Shawntel a common name?
We classify Shawntel as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,152 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shawntel most popular?
The single biggest year for Shawntel was 1995, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shawntel is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shawntel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 926 people with the name Shawntel, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,143 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 Shawntel 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 Shawntel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shawntel leans strongly female. 875 people counted with this name were female (95.1%), compared with 45 male bearers (4.9%). 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 Shawntel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawntel is Black at 47.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.7%) and Hispanic (9.1%). 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 Shawntel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shawntel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.8% (443 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 Shawntel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shawntel a female name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Shawntel 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 Shawntel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shawntel 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 Shawntel 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 called Shawntel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.