How Many People Are Named Chanel?
An estimated 18,273 people in the United States have the first name Chanel. It is almost exclusively a female name. The average bearer is 28 years old, and Chanel peaked in popularity in 1991 with 676 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Chanel as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Chanel paired with any surname.
Key Insights
- While Chanel is overwhelmingly female, 85 male births have been registered with this name since 1880.
Estimated Living Americans
18,273
About 1 in 18,757 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Uncommon
Predicted Gender
Female
99.6% confidence
Average Age
28
years old
Peak Year
1991
676 births
Total Registered
19,011
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Chanel
Chanel is almost exclusively a female name. Out of 19,011 total births registered, 99.6% were female.
Chanel as a male name
Ranked #8,109 in 1996
6 male births in 1996
Peak: 1989 (11 births)
Chanel as a female name
Ranked #1,221 in 2024
192 female births in 2024
Peak: 1991 (676 births)
Chanel: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Chanel span from the 1910s to the 2020s, covering 11 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 1990s, when 4,765 babies were registered. Chanel has declined significantly from its peak in the 1990s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Chanel by Decade
How has Chanel tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
Chanel by State
Birth registrations for Chanel span all 39 states and territories in the SSA database. The highest counts are in California, New York, Florida. The lowest are in West Virginia, Alaska, Mississippi. On average, about 412 Chanels were registered per state.
Chanel + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Chanel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Chanel
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
Chanel: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chanel?
We estimate approximately 18,273 people named Chanel are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 18,757 Americans share this first name.
Is Chanel a common name?
Chanel is classified as "Uncommon" and is more popular than 98.4% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 19,011 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Chanel most popular?
Chanel reached peak popularity in 1991, when 676 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Chanel is approximately 28 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Chanel a female name?
Chanel is predominantly female. 99.6% of people with this name are female. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Chanel Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Chanel Smith, Chanel Johnson, Chanel Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
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