Name of the Week

A French surname turned chic first name,
that hit the heights in the 1990s.

 

Origin:

Chantelle is an anglicised spelling of the French name Chantal, a placename-turned-surname derived from the Old Provençal cantal "stone." Thanks to its similarity, Chantal has popularly been associated with the French word chant "song."

Usage:

Chantal's adoption as a given name is in most part thanks to St Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal (1572-1641). Born to nobility, Jeanne-Françoise married the Baron de Chantal at the age of 21. The marriage, by all accounts, was a happy one but tragically short, leaving the young baroness widowed and heartbroken at 28 with four children. Taking a vow of chastity, she gained a reputation for managing her late husbands estates admirably while providing care for the poor and needy.  In 1604 during Lent, the baroness went to hear the sermon of Saint Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva, in Dijon. The two became firm friends, de Sales acting as her spiritual director. Once she had ensured her children were independent and well provided for, she took holy orders and moved to Annecy, helping to establish the Order of the Visitation in 1610 for women who could not undergo the austerities of the great established orders due to poor health or age.  Her reputation for sanctity became widespread, and she was visited by many women of the aristocracy. By the time of her death, the order had established 86 houses. She was beatified in 1751 and canonised in 1767, by which time the order had doubled to 167 houses.  We first find the name Chantal used as a given name in the 18th century after the saint's canonisation in 1767. At first her full name was given as an honour name -- we find examples of girls named Joanna Francisca De Chantal in Germany and Giovanna Francesca Chantal in Italy -- but soon was used as a name in its own right, especially in French speaking countries.  The name received added glitter thanks to St Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal's granddaughter Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696), whose letters were published from 1734 to 1751 and are considered iconic bastions of French literature. Chantal or Chantelle in any spelling didn't get use in Britain until the 1920s. There are some transcribed records for 'Chantelle' in 19th century records, but a looked at the original scanned documents shows that they are in fact 'Charlotte'.  It was rare at first (with only one birth in England and Wales in the 1920s and the 1930s), but gained more wider use by the 1960s: 1940: 1 birth 1945: 3 births 1950: 5 births 1955: 14 births 1960: 20 births 1965: 54 births 1970: 175 births Chantelle first entered the top 100 in England and Wales in 1994 at #83 but had fallen out of it by 1999. Since then, the name has been on a steady decline, ranking #750 (52 births) in 2013.  In Scotland, Chantelle reached #99 in 1993, peaking at #74 (78 births) in 1997. It fell out of the top 100 after 2000. In 2014, Chantelle ranked #603 with 5 births.

Famous Bearers:

History: * St Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal (1572-1641), co-founder of the Order of the Visitation. Contemporary: * Chantal Goya (b. 1942), French singer and actress. * Chantal Joffe (b. 1969), English painter. * Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, Princess of Denmark (b.1968), wife of Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, Prince of Denmark. * Chantelle Houghton (b.1983), television personality. * Chantelle Paige (1988) American singer-songwriter and actress. * Chantelle Brown-Young (b. 1994), "Winnie Harlow", a Canadian model.

Variants:

Chantal, Chantel, Chantelle, Chantelle

Pronunciation:

shan-TEL [key]

Possible  Diminutives:

Shelly, Shana, Tella, Telly, Nell

Sibling Names:

Robyn     Demi     Natalie     Paige     Nicole     Megan  Mitchell     Ryan     Kyle     Brandon     Marcus       Leon

Name Lists:

N/A

 

If you like Chantelle you may also like:   Chanel, Gabrielle, Charlene, Brielle, Jasmine, Courtney, Danielle, Chantilly, Estelle, Rhianna

 

Thanks to Alice for requesting this post.