Manuela

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Manuella in AT Austria, NL Netherlands, SE Sweden and 2 more and מנואלה in FR France, IL Israel.

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 13 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◐

Manuela is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name647K records spelled Manuela40 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, Brazil, United States, Austria

  Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

  Also written Manula, Manuëla, Manuéla, Manu-Ela, Manuèla

• Catalan given name216K records spelled Manuela14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Spain, France, Belgium, United States

  Languages: Catalan, French

  Also written Manuéla, Manuëla, Manuèla, Manuelä, Manuelà

• Croatian given name22K records spelled Manuela20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, Bulgaria, United States, Italy

  Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Russian

  Also written Мануела, Мануэла, Mânûêlâ, Manuelà

• a separate given name16K records spelled Manuela2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom

  Also written Manuëla

• Romanian given name5.6K records spelled Manuela2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Romania, Italy, Spain, United States

  Also written Manuéla

• Hungarian given name4.5K records spelled Manuela8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Slovenia, Finland, Spain, Hungary

  Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Manuéla, Mänüëlä, Manuèla, Manüela, Manùelà

65 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●

Manuela 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 female given name, masculine equivalent Manuel

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

• In Swedish, Manuela är en femininform av → Manuel. -mar Nordisk (germansk) efterled i mansnamn, identisk med fornvästnordiskans mærr (av urnordiskt mārir) ’utmärkt, berömlig’. Det i-omljud, som finns i ordet mærr, förekommer inte i personnamnen på grund av i:ets svagtoniga ställning. Exempel på namn där efterleden ingår är → Hilmer, → Ing(e)mar.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In French, Variante féminine d’Emmanuel; d’origine chaldéenne et druidique, «la force divine nous est intimement associée».

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In German, weibl. Vom., weibliche Form von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Malorie, Malory

  as a name·25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

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●

• Manuela Sáenzb. 1797ECEcuadorian revolutionary heroine (1797-1856)
• Mercedes of Orléansb. 1860ESnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Spain
• Mercédès Jellinekb. 1889ATnot in their usual namenamesake of Mercedes-Benz
• Manuela Carmenab. 1944ESSpanish judge and politician, mayor of Madrid
• Bibiana Fernándezb. 1954ESnot in their usual nameSpanish actress, singer, presenter and model
• Manuela Maleevab. 1967BGBulgarian female tennis player
• Manuela Schwesigb. 1974DEGerman politician (SPD), Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• Manuela Velascob. 1975ESSpanish actress
• Manuela Arcurib. 1977ITItalian actress and model
• Manuela Vellésb. 1987ESSpanish actress

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 · 1,114 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Manuela?

We estimate roughly 362 thousand people bear Manuela (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Manuela have the most bearers?

Manuela is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled manuela.

Where is Manuela most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Manuela is densest in Spain — about 1 in 377 people — even though Mexico holds more of our records for it.

How common is Manuela compared with other names?

In Mexico, Manuela is the 206th most common given name of 191,605 given names recorded there.

Is Manuela a male or female name?

Manuela is a female 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 Manuela mean?

Recorded meaning: a female given name from Spanish or Portuguese, popular during the second half of the 20th century