Chanel
Chanel was given to 170 girls in 2025, #1,311 among girls’ names; 19,182 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 18,700 Americans named Chanel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 14 and 39.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chanel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chanel mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chanel is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
From French Chanel. As a given name, principally after Coco Chanel.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chanel?
#1,311 among girls’ names, 2025
Chanel fell from #685 in 2015 to #1,311 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.23 to 0.11 per 1,000.
676 babies in 1991, the peak
Chanel peaked in 1991, when 676 girls were given it, #380 among girls’ names. The 170 births of 2025 are 25% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 170 | #1,311 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 192 | #1,224 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 206 | #1,169 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 289 | #937 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 333 | #829 | 0.20 |
| 2020 | 391 | #715 | 0.24 |
| 2019 | 355 | #781 | 0.21 |
| 2018 | 354 | #772 | 0.21 |
| 2017 | 391 | #728 | 0.23 |
| 2016 | 450 | #652 | 0.25 |
Every recorded year (71)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 417 | #685 | 0.23 |
| 2014 | 453 | #630 | 0.25 |
| 2013 | 382 | #722 | 0.22 |
| 2012 | 373 | #746 | 0.21 |
| 2011 | 320 | #827 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 333 | #813 | 0.19 |
| 2009 | 354 | #799 | 0.19 |
| 2008 | 380 | #772 | 0.20 |
| 2007 | 318 | #881 | 0.17 |
| 2006 | 287 | #923 | 0.15 |
| 2005 | 272 | #915 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 263 | #920 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 229 | #1,009 | 0.13 |
| 2002 | 209 | #1,033 | 0.12 |
| 2001 | 238 | #932 | 0.13 |
| 2000 | 278 | #815 | 0.15 |
| 1999 | 275 | #795 | 0.16 |
| 1998 | 325 | #694 | 0.18 |
| 1997 | 378 | #597 | 0.22 |
| 1996 | 416 | #561 | 0.24 |
| 1995 | 358 | #618 | 0.20 |
| 1994 | 468 | #526 | 0.26 |
| 1993 | 594 | #422 | 0.33 |
| 1992 | 658 | #393 | 0.36 |
| 1991 | 676 | #380 | 0.36 |
| 1990 | 606 | #418 | 0.32 |
| 1989 | 523 | #468 | 0.28 |
| 1988 | 544 | #427 | 0.31 |
| 1987 | 465 | #469 | 0.27 |
| 1986 | 495 | #434 | 0.29 |
| 1985 | 458 | #465 | 0.27 |
| 1984 | 437 | #471 | 0.26 |
| 1983 | 434 | #465 | 0.26 |
| 1982 | 332 | #557 | 0.20 |
| 1981 | 270 | #655 | 0.16 |
| 1980 | 281 | #650 | 0.17 |
| 1979 | 264 | #661 | 0.16 |
| 1978 | 198 | #777 | 0.13 |
| 1977 | 163 | #880 | 0.11 |
| 1976 | 151 | #880 | 0.10 |
| 1975 | 140 | #923 | 0.10 |
| 1974 | 119 | #1,008 | 0.08 |
| 1973 | 121 | #982 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 87 | #1,219 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 111 | #1,085 | 0.07 |
| 1970 | 89 | #1,248 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 81 | #1,243 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 61 | #1,453 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 55 | #1,509 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 41 | #1,769 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 38 | #1,856 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 33 | #2,074 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 37 | #1,925 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 21 | #2,671 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 11 | #4,044 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,242 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,643 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #4,966 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 7 | #4,891 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,804 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chanel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Chanel has been given almost only to girls: 85 boys in 80 years of records.
Girls and boys named Chanel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chanel, and how old are they?
18,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 19,182 Americans ever recorded as Chanel. The median Chanel alive today is 30 years old; half are between 14 and 39.
The 2020 Census counted 15,131 people named Chanel (14,957 women and girls, 174 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 17,333 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 126 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,880 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,550 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,780 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,360 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Chanel born?
The states with the most babies named Chanel are California, Texas and Florida, with 54% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 23 | #1,119 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 19 | #1,321 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 18 | #876 | 1.4× |
| New York | 10 | #1,340 | 1.5× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #917 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,240 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,448 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,254 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,500 | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,077 | 0.9× |
Where Chanel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chanel is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1918 it was given 3.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Chanel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 23,994 babies since 1880, Chanel is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 170 of their 177 babies (96%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Chanel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Chanel and names like it
- Compare Chanel and ChanellBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sChanel peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chanel since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Chanel: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Chanel.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Chanel alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.