Given name & surname · also Old English
Cantrell
“hill”
Cantrell is a surname from Old English (ultimately Old French).
Meaning & origin
What it means
Cantrell goes back to Old English hyll, meaning “hill.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Cantrell comes from Old English, and ultimately from Old French.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
In English usage, Cantrell as a surname is a diminutive of CANTER.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1918. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cantrell through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 487
- 422 boys · 65 girls
- Most popular year
- 1975
- 18 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2021. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 18 in 1979. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 475 as a first name in 2020; 33,141 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cantrell’s family of names
In English usage, Cantrell as a surname is a diminutive of CANTER. In English usage, Cantrell as a surname has a related form in CANTRALL. In English usage, Cantrell as a surname has a related form in CANTRALL.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Appears in
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