Emmanuel
- Pronunciation
- [E-ma-nu-el]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- God Is With Us
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Emmanuel
Emmanuel descends through Greek Emmanouēl from the Hebrew Immanu'el, composed of immanu (with us) and El (God) — "God is with us" or "God among us." The name's overwhelming biblical anchor is Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel" — a verse that the Gospel of Matthew (1:23) cites as a messianic prophecy fulfilled by Jesus's birth.
The name therefore carries a uniquely direct Christ-Christological register in Christian tradition: Emmanuel is one of the names by which Jesus himself is called in Christian theology. Christmas hymns like "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (a 12th-century Latin hymn translated into English in the 19th century) anchor the name in Western Christmas liturgical tradition. Despite this central religious register, Emmanuel has been used as a personal name across European Christian-influenced naming traditions for over a millennium.
Notable bearers include 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant (using the German spelling) — whose Critique of Pure Reason (1781) is one of the foundational works of modern Western philosophy; French president Emmanuel Macron (born 1977); and contemporary American basketball player Emmanuel Mudiay. The American Emmanuel surge is part of the broader 21st-century surge in long-form religious names alongside Elijah and Isaiah. The name climbed into the US top 100 boys' rank by 2010 and has held a top-200 range since. The name's appeal is its layered religious depth combined with four flowing syllables that work across formal and casual registers. Common nicknames Manny (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Manuel (a separate but related Spanish form), and the rare Emm each carry distinct registers; international forms include Manuel (Spanish/Portuguese), Manuele (Italian), Emmanuelle (French feminine), Immanuel (German/Latin), and the original Hebrew Immanu'el.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Emmanuel
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Emmanuel by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2008 with 2,862 boys named Emmanuel (boy rank #145 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #179 for boys (2,035 US births). That's 34 places below its 2008 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 Emmanuel 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 Emmanuel the strongest states are Texas, California, Florida.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #102 | 3,496 |
| 2 | California | #113 | 3,675 |
| 3 | Florida | #119 | 1,729 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #133 | 676 |
| 5 | Maryland | #134 | 463 |
| 6 | Nevada | #136 | 231 |
| 7 | Arizona | #138 | 574 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | #147 | 56 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | #147 | 448 |
| 10 | Georgia | #150 | 757 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Emmanuel in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eman | Creed, Belief | Male | Arabic |
| Emanuel | With Us Is God. Variant Of Hebrew Name Immanuel. A Biblical Name-Title Applied To The Messiah. | Male | Spanish |
| Emmanual | God Is With Us. | Male | Hebrew |
| Immanuel | Variant Of Emanuel With Us Is God. | Male | German |
| Man | Benefit | Male | Arabic |
| Mannie | A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us | Male | Spanish |
| Manny | A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us | Male | Spanish |
| Manolo | A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us | Male | Spanish |
| Manuel | A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us | Male | Spanish |
| Manuela | God Is With Us | Female | Spanish |
| Manuelo | A Form Of Emmanuel God Is With Us | Male | Spanish |
Looking for names like Emmanuel?
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 Emmanuel to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Emmanuel 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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