Manuel
- Pronunciation
- [Ma-nu-al]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Manuel
Manuel is the Spanish and Portuguese form of Emmanuel (see separate entry on Emmanuel for the Hebrew Immanu'el etymology meaning "God is with us"). The shortened Manuel has been used continuously in Spanish-speaking countries for over a millennium, anchored by multiple Saint Manuels and the religious significance of the name's underlying Christ-Christological register.
Notable bearers include Argentine general Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820, founder of the Argentine flag and one of the heroes of the Spanish American wars of independence); Spanish king Manuel I of Portugal (the Fortunate, 1469–1521, who oversaw the Portuguese Age of Discovery including Vasco da Gama's expedition to India); and contemporary American basketball player Manuel Stadnyk.
Manuel has been continuously among the popular boys' names in Spanish-speaking American communities for over a century. The name held a US top-100 boys' rank from 1972 through 2010, driven primarily by Spanish-language naming influence. The name's appeal is its compact Spanish-Catholic elegance — three soft syllables, instantly readable across English and Spanish, the in-built religious anchor, and tonal warmth distinctive to Spanish-language naming. Common nicknames Manny (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Manolo (Spanish-American), and the rare Lito each carry distinct registers; international forms include Manoel (alternate Portuguese), Emmanuel (the longer formal form), Manuele (Italian), and the original Hebrew Immanu'el.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Manuel
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Manuel by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2005 with 2,665 boys named Manuel (boy rank #153 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #371 for boys (860 US births). That's 218 places below its 2005 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Manuel Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Manuel the strongest states are Arizona, New Mexico, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | #130 | 609 |
| 2 | New Mexico | #137 | 159 |
| 3 | California | #163 | 2,513 |
| 4 | Texas | #176 | 2,140 |
| 5 | Rhode Island | #191 | 24 |
| 6 | Nevada | #227 | 147 |
| 7 | Colorado | #266 | 236 |
| 8 | Florida | #294 | 612 |
| 9 | Idaho | #309 | 33 |
| 10 | Nebraska | #339 | 74 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio | #784 | 102 |
| 2 | Missouri | #782 | 33 |
| 3 | Minnesota | #706 | 37 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #691 | 43 |
| 5 | Michigan | #674 | 83 |
| 6 | Tennessee | #649 | 101 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | #648 | 127 |
| 8 | South Carolina | #581 | 48 |
| 9 | Virginia | #580 | 121 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #577 | 42 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Manuel in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Manuel
3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Manuel.
- Manuel de Falla is ranked among the most esteemed musicians of the 20th century.
- Manuel González Flores was a liberal politician and military general who served as the 31st president of Mexico.
- Manuel Ortiz Guerrero was a renowned bilingual poet, playwright and musician.
Looking for names like Manuel?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Manuel to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Manuel against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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