Message: "Chanel and Chanalina"

Chanel and Chanalina

by Shaymin

4/19/2024, 3:00 PM

I found this record for a female named "Chanalina" from 17th-century Savoye. Any idea what this name's etymology could be?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6JF9-FG2D

Also found a lot of early instances in France of Chanel being used as a first name, I know it was common in France to honour a saint by using their last name. There was a St. Pierre Chanel, but he did not come about until the 19th-century, unless there was an earlier saint with this last name? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Chanel)

Here are the 17th-century male Chanels I found
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XVS-SXT4
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F3K-91YT
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:69VF-S66Z
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:671Y-J6ZM
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W5D1-HQZM

And 1 female Chanelle
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FKZ-674Q

A Marie Chenele
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:69Y5-R9PZ

I looked at the records and none are the mother's maiden name. Does this name have some other etymology?

#Chanalina #Chanel

Replies

- LMS +1

4/20/2024, 11:44 PM

Its likely from French Canel which was given to people who lived by a channel, itself deriving from latin Canalis. It was used as a surname and thus likely to be given as a forename, as early as the 1300s.

- Shaymin

4/21/2024, 2:53 PM

Really, I thought the surname as a first name was mainly an English custom that only started in the 17th-century. That is interesting.

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