Shontel
Feminine
Shontel is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 771 girls against 19 boys since 1880.
Shontel is recorded for boys and girls alike and writes a French-shaped name with English letters, or possibly does not. Its ending is also a word in its own right, used by archaeologists for one of the strangest kinds of hill there is.
How old is the name Shontel?
Shontel first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Shontel alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 700 people named Shontel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shontel most popular?
Shontel peaked in 1972, reaching #1856 nationally. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Shontel
A tel is a hill made of a town. Mud brick does not last: a building stands for a generation or two, collapses, gets leveled, and the next house is built on top of the rubble. Do that for three thousand years on the same spot, because the spot has the well, and the settlement slowly raises itself above the plain on a mound of its own remains, thirty or forty feet of compressed history in layers. The word is Arabic and Hebrew and it is all over the map of the region in place names. Archaeologists dig them in horizontal slices, and each slice is a different century, which is why excavation reports read like a sequence of towns rather than one.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Chantal is the usual suggestion and that name is a French place name with a documented sense. Whether this spelling descends from it or was assembled from a free front and a free ending is not recorded.
Pronouncing Shontel
shon-TELL
Two syllables with the weight on the second. SHON-tel, with the stress in front, is also heard.
Nicknames for Shontel
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
- 1967
- Most girls named
- 197245 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1856reached in 1972
- Change vs 2001
- +12.5%9 in 2002, 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.
Shontels among us
people named Shontel are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Shontel sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Shon comes off the front as a short form and works for either sex.
- The stress is usually unmistakable, so first attempts land correctly.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
- Shantel, Chantel and Shauntel are all in the record and will be confused with it.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
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Shontel
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Shontels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Shontel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shontel in 2025?
- Shontel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Shontel with classmates?
- Shontel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shontel? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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