Cantrell
Of uncertain origin, potentially derived from the Welsh "cant" meaning "hundred".
Name Census estimates that about 459 living Americans carry the first name Cantrell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Cantrell today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cantrell births was 1975 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cantrell. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
459
~ 1 in 746,741 Americans
Peak year
1975
18 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,449
Tracked since 1918
Census
Cantrell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 476 people with the first name Cantrell, which placed it at #21,371 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#21,371
National first-name rank
People counted
476
476 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
80.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cantrell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cantrell is Black at 80.3%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cantrell described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cantrell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American80.3% · 382
- White13.2% · 63
- Two or more races4.6% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Cantrell
Cantrell leans heavily male at 86.7% of total registrations, but 65 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cantrell as a male name
- Ranked #12,449 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1979 (18 births)
Cantrell as a female name
- Ranked #12,668 in 1989
- 5 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1975 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cantrell on both sides of the split. Of the 475 people counted with this name, 367 were male (77.3%) and 108 were female (22.7%).
Popularity
Cantrell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cantrell from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 108 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cantrell by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cantrell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cantrell
The name Cantrell is believed to have originated from the Old English language, specifically from the region of England that is now known as Kent. It is thought to have derived from the words "cant," meaning corner or edge, and "rel," meaning a ridge or hill. Therefore, the name Cantrell is believed to have initially referred to someone who lived on a ridge or hill near a corner or edge of land.
While the exact origins of the name are not certain, it is believed to have first emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th centuries in England. During this time, many place names and surnames emerged that were descriptive of the local geography or landscape.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cantrell can be found in the Domesday Book, which was a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name is mentioned in reference to a landowner or tenant in the region of Kent.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who have borne the name Cantrell. One of the earliest was Sir John Cantrell, who lived in the 14th century and was a prominent landowner and military commander during the Hundred Years' War between England and France.
In the 16th century, Thomas Cantrell was a notable English clergyman and scholar who served as the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and was involved in the translation of the King James Bible.
During the English Civil War in the 17th century, a Puritan soldier named Thomas Cantrell gained fame for his military exploits and was later appointed as a member of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate government.
In the realm of literature, the name Cantrell is associated with the English poet and playwright John Cantrell, who lived in the late 17th century and wrote several popular plays and verse satires.
More recently, in the 20th century, the name Cantrell was borne by Robert Cantrell, an American mathematician and computer scientist who made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and was a pioneer in the development of expert systems.
People
Cantrell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cantrell as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cantrell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cantrell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 459 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cantrell going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 746,741 US residents.
Is Cantrell a common name?
We classify Cantrell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 487 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cantrell most popular?
The single biggest year for Cantrell was 1975, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cantrell is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cantrell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 476 people with the name Cantrell, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,371 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cantrell in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cantrell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cantrell on both sides of the split. Of the 475 people counted with this name, 367 were male (77.3%) and 108 were female (22.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cantrell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cantrell is Black at 80.3%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cantrell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cantrell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.3% (382 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cantrell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cantrell a male name?
Yes, 86.7% of people registered as Cantrell in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cantrell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cantrell in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cantrell can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Cantrell as a first name?
Find out how many people share the name Cantrell on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.