Chenault

As someone who loves to watch movies, as I am sure a lot of you have already worked out by now, I do get excited when I hear a name that I haven’t heard before and that was the case when watching The Rum Diary and it was the lead female character’s name that caught my eye – Chenualt.

Amber Heard as Chenault in The Rum Diary alongside Johnny Depp

Chenault (pronounced: shuh-NOH) is a name of French origin and means ‘one who came from, or lived near Chenal (irrigation chanel)’. It is more commonly found as a surname than as a first name and unfortunately the meaning doesn’t mean ‘radiant sunshine’ or something else really pretty but then that hasn’t stopped me loving names in the past and neither should it let you. I guess the French can make everything sound pretty.

The movie was based on the Hunter S Thompson novel of the same name and it makes me wonder where he found the name because truly it is an inspired choice and not just some run of the mill name from the 60s in which this is set. In any case, the character, well I would definitely describe her as full of life but then if you were to use this name on a child I doubt it would be a case of Veruca where people would instantly attach the name to the character in the story. The movie and book are good, but not as well known as they should be.

The name itself is quite like Chenelle of which it is a variant of, which then ties it back to the name Chanel. So if you are into your high fashion but don’t want to go with the obvious root of Chanel, then Chenault would make an interesting alternative. It looks quite chic and sophisticated as well which is what the Chanel brand is all like.

The name Cheanult was given to less than 5 girls last year though I would tend to guess no children were given the name. On the other hand, Chanel was given to 318 girls and Chenelle was given to 9 girls. So all in all, this is an interesting French name that would make for a wonderful name for any child, and if I do say so myself, this name is on my potentials list. There just seems to be a sort of aura surrounding the name, despite the fact that the name has to do with irrigation.