Manuel

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Manolo in GT Guatemala.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Manuel is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name3.4M records spelled Manuel51 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Manul, Manuël, Manuél, Manuèl, Manül

• a separate given name582K records spelled Manuel6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, India, Spain

  Also written Manuēl, Manuél, Manuël, Mànuel, Manúel

• Indonesian given name41K records spelled Manuel8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, United States, Indonesia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Manuël, Mánuel, Manuèl, Manuél, Mąnuel

• Polish given name41K records spelled Manuel32 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Croatia, Spain, United States

  Languages: Polish, Croatian, Czech

  Also written Мануел, Manuil, Мануил, Máńűéĺ, Mâńûêl

• Lao given name31K records spelled Manuel36 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Spain

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written มานูเอล, มานูแอล, มานุเอล, มานูเอ็ล, Mänüël

• Danish given name15K records spelled Manuel8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Denmark, Spain, Norway

  Languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål

  Also written Mānuel, Manuèl

• Russian given name14K records spelled Manuel46 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Russia, Spain, Ukraine

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh

  Also written Мануэль, Мануил, Мануэл, Мануїл, Мануел

106 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Manuel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Portuguese, a male given name, equivalent to English Emmanuel or Manuel

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Spanish, a male given name, derived from biblical Emanuel

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Immanuel (God is with us)

  as a name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

• In French, dérivé de Emmanuel.

  as a name·Dictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français. Anthroponymie et généalogie. 2e édition

• In Swedish, Manuel är en form av → Emanuel, särskilt vanlig i spansk- och portugisisktalande länder.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Manuel II Palaiologosb. 1350TRByzantine emperor (1350-1425)
• Deodoro da Fonsecab. 1827BRnot in their usual namePresident of Brazil (1827-1892)
• Manuel L. Quezonb. 1878PHPresident of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944
• Manuel Azañab. 1880ESprime minister of Spain, president of Spain (1880-1940)
• Manuel II of Portugalb. 1889PTKing of Portugal (1889–1932)
• Manuel Ávila Camachob. 1897MX52th President of Mexico
• Manuel Antonio Noriega Morenob. 1934PAPanamanian head of state (1934-2017)
• António Guterresb. 1949PTnot in their usual nameSecretary-General of the United Nations since 2017
• Raymond Domenechb. 1952FRnot in their usual nameFrench football manager (born 1952)
• Manuel Vallsb. 1962FRFrench and Spanish politician

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,674 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Manuel?

We estimate roughly 1.2 million people bear Manuel (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Manuel have the most bearers?

Manuel is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled manuel.

How common is Manuel compared with other names?

In Mexico, Manuel is the 9th most common given name of 191,605 given names recorded there.

Is Manuel a male or female name?

Manuel is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Manuel mean?

Recorded meaning: Americanized form of any of various other European family names derived from Emanuel, for example the Greek patronymic Manouilidis.