Shantel
Feminine · “stone”
Shantel is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 10,260 girls against 59 boys since 1880.
Chantal looks as though it means song. It does not. It comes from a place in southern France whose name is Occitan for a stone or a boulder, and the resemblance to the French verb chanter is a coincidence that has fooled almost everyone who has ever met the name.
How old is the name Shantel?
Shantel first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Shantel alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 10,000 people named Shantel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shantel most popular?
Shantel peaked in 1990, reaching #499 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,418 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From cantal to Shantel
The story of Shantel
Jeanne-Francoise Fremiot married the Baron de Chantal, was widowed at twenty-eight with four children, and later founded a religious order with Francis de Sales. She was canonized in the eighteenth century, and French Catholic families began giving her married surname as a first name — which is why Chantal is a name at all. The place it names is in the Auvergne region and its Occitan root means a rock. The American spelling Shantel does one job: French ch is the sound English writes sh, and English ch is a different sound entirely, so writing sh removes the guesswork for every reader who has not studied French.
Meaning
stone, boulder
From the French place name Chantal, which is from Occitan cantal, a stone. It became a surname, then a given name through Jeanne de Chantal. French chanter, to sing, is a separate word and is not the source, although the reading song is printed constantly.
How the name formed
- cantal
- Chantal
- Shantel
Related forms: Chantal · Chantal · Chantal
Pronouncing Shantel
shan-TELL
Two syllables, stress on the second, in French and American use alike. SHAN-tel, front-loaded, is also heard here. The French Chantal ends with an open a rather than an e sound.
Nicknames for Shantel
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 1990486 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #499reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%8 in 2025, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Shantel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chantal in French — same name
- Chantal in Dutch — same name
- Chantal in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Shantels among us
people named Shantel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Shantel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Annemarie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shantel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Annemarie climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Annemarie's path sketches the road Shantel is walking now.
Shantel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Shantel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shantel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling removes the one ambiguity that Chantal carries for English readers.
- A documented French origin with a place, a person and a date attached.
- Two syllables that everybody can say on first hearing.
- Chantal, Chantelle and Shantelle are all in use, so the spelling will be given every time.
- The meaning printed for it in most name books is wrong, which will need correcting more than once.
- The very few boys given this spelling will be read as girls on paper.
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What they receive
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Shantel
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shantels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,000 people named Shantel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shantel in 2025?
- Shantel ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shantel?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Shantel — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shantel with classmates?
- Shantel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shantel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shantel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shantel and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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