As to the meaning of Shakil, Shakel, {and probably its African American variant "Shaquille"}- I did not find Shakil in my Arabic name books either but found it on a website of Arabic names- I believe it was one of the "Behind The Names" sites...

I found this noted on a website about Shaquille O'Neil:

"O'Neal was named "Shaquille Rashaun" ("Little Warrior" in Arabic) by his biological father"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaquille_O'Neal

-snip-

Both the names "Shaquille" and "Rashaun" might demonstrate African American's tendency to 'make up' meanings for names based on what they want it to mean or have heard or read {erroneous as it might be}.

"Rashaun" may be from the Arabic male name "Rashad" whose meaning a book I have is "symbol or sign of faith, integrity of conduct, reason, good sense; This name is similar to [from the same root as] "Rashid"; "Rasheed" which is said to mean "rightly guided; intelligent}

What could have been the reason for the change in suffix? We African Americans are much more "in to" the "aun" sound then the "id"; "eed" sound. Besides African Americans became familiar with Arabic names from famous African Americans and [if the sound preferences fit our liking] used those names {think jazz musician Rashaun Roland Kirk}...   

"aun"; "on" btw is a very hot ending for both female and male African American names. As in the male names "Devon","Trevon"; see also the addition of a suffix to add style and cache to the name {Devonte; Devontay} also add an accent mark or hyphen to be even more unique

"Uniqueness", "being in style" should be added to my list for what criteria African Americans use for selection of names. That's why you find so many similar sounding names among children in the same classroom.

My daughter is a 2nd grade teacher. What interested me about her class roster this year was the large number of "De" names for males. I'll ask her for that list of first names and post it here later.