Channel
Channel was last recorded in 2024, when 7 babies were given it; 1,524 Americans have been recorded with it between 1967 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,480 Americans named Channel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 29 and 43.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Channel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Channel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #12,419, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
85 babies in 1991, the peak
Channel peaked in 1991, when 85 girls were given it, #1,705 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7 | #12,419 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 5 | #15,668 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 6 | #13,957 | 3.7 |
| 2021 | 7 | #12,471 | 4.3 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,406 | 4.3 |
| 2017 | 12 | #8,908 | 7.0 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,189 | 4.0 |
| 2015 | 11 | #9,612 | 6.2 |
| 2014 | 19 | #6,508 | 10.6 |
| 2013 | 9 | #11,206 | 5.1 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 11 | #9,859 | 6.2 |
| 2011 | 13 | #8,725 | 7.4 |
| 2010 | 11 | #9,921 | 6.2 |
| 2009 | 16 | #7,752 | 8.7 |
| 2008 | 17 | #7,482 | 9.0 |
| 2007 | 22 | #6,145 | 11.4 |
| 2006 | 22 | #5,959 | 11.6 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,060 | 10.8 |
| 2004 | 11 | #9,379 | 6.0 |
| 2003 | 11 | #9,171 | 6.0 |
| 2002 | 19 | #5,941 | 10.6 |
| 2001 | 23 | #5,039 | 12.8 |
| 2000 | 18 | #5,986 | 9.9 |
| 1999 | 22 | #4,893 | 12.4 |
| 1998 | 22 | #4,821 | 12.5 |
| 1997 | 30 | #3,725 | 17.2 |
| 1996 | 29 | #3,731 | 16.5 |
| 1995 | 26 | #3,992 | 14.8 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,937 | 22.4 |
| 1993 | 57 | #2,267 | 31.5 |
| 1992 | 64 | #2,103 | 34.7 |
| 1991 | 85 | #1,705 | 45.3 |
| 1990 | 84 | #1,734 | 44.2 |
| 1989 | 68 | #1,908 | 36.9 |
| 1988 | 79 | #1,643 | 44.4 |
| 1987 | 64 | #1,817 | 36.8 |
| 1986 | 47 | #2,197 | 27.4 |
| 1985 | 50 | #2,107 | 29.1 |
| 1984 | 47 | #2,118 | 27.9 |
| 1983 | 42 | #2,278 | 25.1 |
| 1982 | 39 | #2,458 | 23.0 |
| 1981 | 43 | #2,310 | 25.8 |
| 1980 | 34 | #2,704 | 20.5 |
| 1979 | 38 | #2,438 | 23.7 |
| 1978 | 38 | #2,354 | 24.8 |
| 1977 | 32 | #2,615 | 20.9 |
| 1976 | 35 | #2,343 | 23.9 |
| 1975 | 17 | #3,794 | 11.7 |
| 1974 | 16 | #3,882 | 10.9 |
| 1973 | 19 | #3,358 | 13.0 |
| 1972 | 14 | #4,117 | 9.2 |
| 1971 | 16 | #3,809 | 9.6 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,164 | 2.9 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,513 | 4.7 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,146 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #6,930 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Channel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Channel has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Channel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Channel, and how old are they?
1,480 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,524 Americans ever recorded as Channel. The median Channel alive today is 36 years old; half are between 29 and 43.
The 2020 Census counted 1,180 people named Channel (1,128 women and girls, 52 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,461 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 266 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 840 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 285 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 89 |
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 Channel born?
The states with the most babies named Channel are California, New York and Illinois, with 79% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 165 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 155 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Illinois | 57 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 30 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 20 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 11 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| New Jersey | 10 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Ohio | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Texas | 7 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Maryland | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Channel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Channel is most over-represented in New York: since 1967 it was given 1.5 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 Channel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Channel?
Channel is a less common spelling of Chanel: SSA has recorded 1,524 Channel and 19,182 Chanel since 1880.
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 23,994 babies since 1880, Channel is the third most given (6.4% of them). In 2025 none of their 177 babies recorded by SSA was a Channel (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Channel
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 Channel and names like it
- Compare Channel and ChanelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sChannel peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Channel since 1910.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Channel.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Channel alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.