Manly vs Manny
American parents have registered 4,087 Mannys since 1880, against 521 Manlys. Manny is still ahead, with 37 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Manly Manny
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 124 years in which either name was published, Manny for 110 years and Manly for 14 years. The lead changed hands 13 times.
- 1880–1895 Manly ahead
- 1900–1917 Manny ahead
- 1921–1923 Manly ahead
- 1927–2025 Manny ahead, apart from 2 short spells
8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Manly | Manny | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 521 | 4,087 |
| Most in one year | 24 | 113 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 37 |
| Estimated living today | 110 | 3,300 |
| Median age today | 73 | 27 |
| Peak year | 1922 | 2009 |
| Best rank | 1,545th boys | 1,472nd boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 3,181st |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1900 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 521 | 0 / 4,087 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Manlys alive today are over 73; half the Mannys are over 27. That is 46 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Manly North Carolina (34.5×)
- Manny Arizona (5.8×), New York (5.2×), California (2.7×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Manly and Manny.