Humanverse

Manolo vs Manuela

American parents have registered 11,068 Manuelas since 1880, against 1,524 Manolos. But in 2025 it was Manolo that was commoner, 113 babies to 68.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Manolo 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 141 years and Manolo for 5 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Manolo Manuela
Total US births 1,52411,068
Most in one year 113202
Babies in 2025 11368
Estimated living today 1,5005,900
Median age today 943
Peak year 20251924
Best rank 1,529th boys488th girls
Rank in 2025 1,529th2,564th
First recorded 19651880
Girls / boys 0 / 1,52411,033 / 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 Manuelas alive today are over 43; half the Manolos are over 9. That is 34 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.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Manolo Manuela
France 1,2509,560
Italy 5195,901
Switzerland 46420
England and Wales 6320
Belgium 26290

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Manolo and Manuela.