Chantal
Chantal was given to 19 girls in 2025, #6,166 among girls’ names; 8,476 Americans have been recorded with it since 1947 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,170 Americans named Chantal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 28 and 43.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chantal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chantal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chantal is “a female given name from French.” Its etymology gives the sense “stone, moellon, rubblestone” (cantal).
Borrowed from French Chantal in the 1960s, from the surname of a French saint Jeanne de Chantal, actually a Baroness of Chantal, a place name in France from Old Occitan cantal (“stone, moellon, rubblestone”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chantal?
#6,166 among girls’ names, 2025
Chantal fell from #3,398 in 2015 to #6,166 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 26.3 to 11.8 per million.
428 babies in 1990, the peak
Chantal peaked in 1990, when 428 girls were given it, #552 among girls’ names. The 19 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 19 | #6,166 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 17 | #6,684 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 20 | #6,002 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 15 | #7,343 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 31 | #4,427 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 20 | #5,901 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 20 | #6,022 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 23 | #5,487 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 24 | #5,398 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 28 | #4,884 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (78)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 47 | #3,398 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 52 | #3,142 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 52 | #3,134 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 49 | #3,326 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 65 | #2,699 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 60 | #2,871 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 83 | #2,341 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 109 | #1,932 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 98 | #2,073 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 109 | #1,868 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 151 | #1,419 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 124 | #1,585 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 135 | #1,453 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 174 | #1,180 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 154 | #1,278 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 146 | #1,304 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 229 | #920 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 174 | #1,106 | 0.10 |
| 1997 | 220 | #910 | 0.13 |
| 1996 | 244 | #824 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 281 | #727 | 0.16 |
| 1994 | 228 | #861 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 269 | #763 | 0.15 |
| 1992 | 297 | #719 | 0.16 |
| 1991 | 369 | #612 | 0.20 |
| 1990 | 428 | #552 | 0.23 |
| 1989 | 376 | #581 | 0.20 |
| 1988 | 292 | #662 | 0.16 |
| 1987 | 342 | #580 | 0.20 |
| 1986 | 254 | #706 | 0.15 |
| 1985 | 218 | #776 | 0.13 |
| 1984 | 140 | #1,019 | 0.08 |
| 1983 | 138 | #1,019 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 179 | #859 | 0.11 |
| 1981 | 138 | #1,037 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 106 | #1,238 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 80 | #1,483 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 102 | #1,223 | 0.07 |
| 1977 | 94 | #1,270 | 0.06 |
| 1976 | 103 | #1,139 | 0.07 |
| 1975 | 87 | #1,278 | 0.06 |
| 1974 | 66 | #1,487 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 77 | #1,314 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 91 | #1,183 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 138 | #935 | 0.08 |
| 1970 | 99 | #1,169 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 115 | #1,009 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 118 | #951 | 0.07 |
| 1967 | 59 | #1,442 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 59 | #1,431 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 55 | #1,502 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 65 | #1,394 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 48 | #1,650 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 35 | #1,947 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 33 | #2,040 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 22 | #2,582 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 28 | #2,158 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 25 | #2,271 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 19 | #2,665 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 17 | #2,838 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,330 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,295 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 9 | #3,847 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 11 | #3,309 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 11 | #3,250 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 8 | #3,935 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 19 | #2,265 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 9 | #3,742 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chantal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Chantal has been given almost only to girls: 7 boys in 78 years of records.
Girls and boys named Chantal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chantal, and how old are they?
8,170 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 8,476 Americans ever recorded as Chantal. The median Chantal alive today is 36 years old; half are between 28 and 43.
The 2020 Census counted 10,546 people named Chantal (10,513 women and girls, 33 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,135 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 310 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,350 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,090 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,060 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 366 |
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 Chantal born?
The states with the most babies named Chantal are California, New York and Texas, with 57% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,636 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| New York | 880 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Texas | 685 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Florida | 481 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Massachusetts | 246 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 217 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 215 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 158 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Arizona | 126 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 116 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Chantal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chantal is most over-represented in California: since 1947 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 Chantal 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 27,687 babies since 1880, Chantal is the second most given (31% of them). In 2025 it was given to 19 of their 33 babies (58%), the most given that year.
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 Chantal
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 Chantal and names like it
- Compare Chantal and ChantelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sChantal peaked in 1990.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chantal since 1910.
- French namesWiktionary’s origin for Chantal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Chantal.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Chantal alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.