Shanelle
Shanelle was given to 14 girls in 2025, #7,840 among girls’ names; 4,625 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,510 Americans named Shanelle and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 34 years old and half are between 23 and 41.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shanelle by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shanelle mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shanelle is “a female given name of African-American usage.”
From French Chanel, after Coco Chanel and under influence from -elle.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shanelle?
#7,840 among girls’ names, 2025
Shanelle fell from #3,172 in 2015 to #7,840 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 29.7 to 8.7 per million.
201 babies in 1992, the peak
Shanelle peaked in 1992, when 201 girls were given it, #958 among girls’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #7,840 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 20 | #6,123 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 23 | #5,520 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 18 | #6,668 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 34 | #4,225 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 43 | #3,537 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 44 | #3,544 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 44 | #3,551 | 0.03 |
| 2017 | 35 | #4,209 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 43 | #3,652 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 53 | #3,172 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 39 | #3,912 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 60 | #2,868 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 77 | #2,423 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 66 | #2,690 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 69 | #2,637 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 66 | #2,746 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 69 | #2,682 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 80 | #2,387 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 64 | #2,774 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 78 | #2,307 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 55 | #2,917 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 62 | #2,600 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 68 | #2,372 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 66 | #2,403 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 83 | #2,009 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 109 | #1,557 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 79 | #1,935 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 93 | #1,692 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 112 | #1,473 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 141 | #1,220 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 167 | #1,080 | 0.09 |
| 1993 | 169 | #1,077 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 201 | #958 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 182 | #1,011 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 160 | #1,095 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 181 | #964 | 0.10 |
| 1988 | 155 | #1,039 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 147 | #1,051 | 0.08 |
| 1986 | 124 | #1,155 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 142 | #1,048 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 142 | #1,010 | 0.08 |
| 1983 | 121 | #1,118 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 107 | #1,236 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 115 | #1,163 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 121 | #1,131 | 0.07 |
| 1979 | 98 | #1,293 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 78 | #1,469 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 66 | #1,620 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 40 | #2,165 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 41 | #2,128 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 21 | #3,294 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 23 | #2,994 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 31 | #2,385 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 25 | #2,857 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 11 | #5,003 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 18 | #3,294 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 17 | #3,281 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,908 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,434 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shanelle a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shanelle has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shanelle: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shanelle, and how old are they?
4,510 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,625 Americans ever recorded as Shanelle. The median Shanelle alive today is 34 years old; half are between 23 and 41.
The 2020 Census counted 3,898 people named Shanelle (3,882 women and girls, 16 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,399 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 | 571 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,170 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 467 |
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 Shanelle born?
The states with the most babies named Shanelle are California, New York and Florida, with 52% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 512 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 502 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Florida | 197 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 144 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Texas | 124 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Ohio | 119 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Maryland | 116 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| New Jersey | 110 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Hawaii | 92 | not ranked | 4.8× |
| Michigan | 91 | not ranked | 0.5× |
Where Shanelle is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shanelle is most over-represented in New York: since 1966 it was given 1.6 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 Shanelle 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 4,947 babies since 1880, Shanelle is the most given (93% of them).
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 Shanelle
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 Shanelle and names like it
- Compare Shanelle and ShannelleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShanelle peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shanelle since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Shanelle.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shanelle alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.