How popular is the baby name Chantal in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Chantal.
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The curious name Tamarisk first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1979. It stuck around for one more year, then disappeared again:
1981: unlisted
1980: 5 baby girls named Tamarisk
1979: 9 baby girls named Tamarisk [debut]
1978: unlisted
1977: unlisted
Where did it come from?
A romance novel.
The historical romance Tamarisk (1978) was written by British novelist Claire Lorrimer (pen name of Patricia Robins). It was set in Georgian-era England and the main character was a capricious teenager named Tamarisk Barre.
Tamarisk was part of Robins’ “Women of Fire” trilogy, which included Mavreen (1976) and Chantal (1980).
I’m not sure how the character came to have the name “Tamarisk,” but the word refers to the flowering trees/shrubs of the Old World genus Tamarix. Tamarisk trees may have gotten their name from the river Támaris (today called the Tambre) in Spain.
What do you think of Tamarisk as a baby name? Would you use it?
Have you heard of Kevinism? It’s Europe’s bias against people who have first names that are “culturally devalued” like Kevin, Chantal, Mandy and Justin — names that were popularized by American pop culture, typically.
In the case of Kevin, it became trendy overseas in the late ’80s and early ’90s, thanks largely to American actors like Kevin Costner and Kevin Bacon — not to mention the very successful 1990 Christmas movie Home Alone, in which the lead character was a young boy named Kevin.
In fact, the name hit #1 in several European countries, including France and Switzerland.
In France specifically, the name Kevin was a top-10 name from 1988 to 1996, ranking #1 for six years straight:
1997: 4,320 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 18th]
1996: 5,842 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 10th]
1995: 7,609 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 5th]
1994: 9,865 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1993: 11,225 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1992: 12,648 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1991: 13,330 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1990: 11,418 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1989: 11,353 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 1st]
1988: 8,378 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 5th]
1987: 6,731 baby boys named Kevin [rank: 11th]
And those numbers don’t include the usage of the spelling “Kévin,” which was given to hundreds more baby boys per year during the same period.
After the trend cooled off, the backlash began.
It’s so bad now that, just a few years ago, a German schoolteacher told researchers that Kevin is “not a name, but a diagnosis.”
Which makes this recent observation by Andrew Gruttadaro of The Ringer all the more interesting: “Of the scripted shows on the four major [U.S.] networks that currently include a first name in the title–Kevin Can Wait, Young Sheldon, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Bob’s Burgers, Will & Grace, and Marlon–33 percent of them feature a Kevin.”
It’s a fascinating juxtaposition. Kevin has apparently hit some sort of nostalgic sweet-spot for American TV audiences, and, at the same time, it’s so disliked overseas that an entirely new word has been coined to describe the prejudice.
I wonder if those American shows are being seen in Europe and, if so, whether they’ll affect Kevinism. Will they exacerbate it? Eradicate it?
Where do you live, and how do you feel about the name Kevin?
Though The Chantels were technically the second African-American girl-group (after the Bobbettes) to achieve chart success, they missed being first by just a matter of weeks.
The quintet of Catholic choir girls — Arlene, Lois, Renee, Jackie, and Sonia — hit the scene in the latter half of 1957 with two singles: “He’s Gone,” released in August, and “Maybe,” released in December.
“Maybe” ended up becoming a hit in early 1958, reaching #2 on the R&B charts and #15 on the Hot 100. Here are the Chantels singing (well, lip-syncing) “Maybe” on The Dick Clark Show in March:
The word “Chantels” never ended up in the U.S. baby name data, but the non-plural form Chantel started popping up in 1957:
I’m not sure what caused that explosion of variants in 1963. The Chantels’ next-biggest hit, “Look In My Eyes” (1961), is probably too early to account for it. The answer might be the 1962 movie If a Man Answers, which featured a character named Chantal played by Sandra Dee.
So where did the Chantels get their name? From a Catholic parish in Bronx — but not their own, St. Anthony of Padua. Here’s the story:
The girls were performing at a dance at St. Francis [sic] de Chantal parish in Throgs Neck, got a terrific hand from the audience, and had a brainstorm for the name of their group.
They simply altered Chantal — a French place name meaning “stony” — to create Chantel.
Do you like the name Chantel? Do you like it more or less than Chantal?
Children’s author Roald Dahl — famous for books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda — was born to Norwegian immigrant parents in Wales in 1916. He was named after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
After serving as a fighter pilot during WWII (and creating the fifinella gremlin), Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal in 1953. They had a total of five children together.
Their first baby was named Olivia Twenty. Why a number as a middle name?
Olivia Twenty was born in New York on April 20, 1955, and named after her mother’s favorite Shakespearean heroine, the date of her birth, and the fact that Roald had $20 in his pocket when he came to visit Pat in the hospital.
Their second child, born in 1957, was named Chantal Sophia. Soon after she was born and christened, the Dahls realized that “Chantal” rhymed with “Dahl,” so they began calling her by the nickname Tessa.
The last three Dahl children were named Theo Matthew (b. 1960), Ophelia Magdalena (b. 1964), and Lucy Neal (b. 1965). The name Ophelia could be another Shakespearean reference, while the middle names Sophia and Magdalena likely come from Dahl’s mother, Sofie Magdalene.
P.S. In April of 1964, Patricia Neal won the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in the 1963 movie Hud.
Sources:
Sturrock, Donald. Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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