Humanverse

Manly vs Manuela

American parents have registered 11,068 Manuelas since 1880, against 521 Manlys. Manuela is still ahead, with 68 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Manly against Manuela, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Manly Manuela

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 146 years in which either name was published, Manuela for 145 years and Manly for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Manly Manuela
Total US births 52111,068
Most in one year 24202
Babies in 2025 under 568
Estimated living today 1105,900
Median age today 7343
Peak year 19221924
Best rank 1,545th boys488th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,564th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 0 / 52111,033 / 35

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 Manuelas are over 43. That is 30 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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 Manuela.