Where did the baby name Chantel come from in 1957?

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:

• 1959: 5 baby girls named Chantel
• 1958: unlisted
• 1957: 5 baby girls named Chantel [debut]
• 1956: unlisted
• 1955: unlisted

The spelling Chantell debuted in 1958.

And look what happened in the early ’60s:

	1961	1962	1963	1964
Chantel	5	12	56	45
Chantell	.	.	7	20
Chantelle	.	.	31*	30
Shantel	.	.	11*	19
Chantele	.	.	9*	7
Shantell	.	.	6*	12
Shantelle	.	.	.	9*

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 the 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?

Sources:

• The Chantels – Wikipedia
• Pollak, Michael. “F.Y.I.” New York Times 16 Jan. 2005.
• SSA