Chanel - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. (c)ha-nel, ch-an-el ] The girl name Chanel is pronounced SHahNEHL ^KEY. Chanel's language of origin is Old French and it is used mainly in the English language. Literally from the element chanel which means 'canal, channel'. The first name is derived from the surname, under the influence of the pioneering French fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971) and her Chanel perfume and clothing brand. It has been popular with African Americans since the late 20th century.

Forms of Chanel include the variant spellings Chanele (English), Chanell (English), Chanelle (English), Channel (English), Channele (English), Channell (English), Channelle (English), Shanel (English), Shanell (English), Shanelle (English), and Shannelle (English).

Chanel is somewhat popular as a baby name for girls. Its usage peaked modestly in 1991 with 0.033% of baby girls being given the name Chanel. It ranked at #383 then. The baby name has since markedly declined in popularity, and in recent years it is of only very light use. In 2007, it ranked at #879 with a usage of 0.015%, but it was nonetheless the most regularly used among all girl names in its group.

Baby names that sound like Chanel include Cindl (English), Shanel (English), Shanell (English), Shanelle (English), Shannelle (English), and Samuela (Italian).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Chanel: SH as in "she (SH.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)"

Popularity Trend
for Chanel
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Chanel
in 2007