Manar
Feminine · “lighthouse”
Manar is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 739 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Arabic has a way of building a noun that means the place where something happens. Take the root for light and pour it into that pattern and you get manar: not light itself, but the place light comes from. A lighthouse, a beacon, a minaret.
How old is the name Manar?
Manar first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Manar alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Manar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Manar most popular?
Manar peaked in 2002, reaching #3069 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 3,477 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Where it comes from
From nur to Manar
The story of Manar
Arabic morphology is patterned rather than accumulative: a three-consonant root is poured into a template, and the template supplies the grammar. The maf'al template makes nouns of place, and it is one of the most productive in the language, generating hundreds of ordinary words. Manar sits in it, and because the root is light, the result names a beacon or a lighthouse. The English word minaret comes from the same template on the same root by way of Turkish. As a woman's name Manar is used across the Arab world and reached United States records with Arab migration, with a best year of 2002.
Meaning
lighthouse, beacon, place of light
Arabic manar, from the root n-w-r, light, in the pattern that forms nouns of place. The same root gives nur, light, and minaret, which is manarah, the place of light, since the tower carried a lamp. The pattern is fully productive: maktab, a place of writing, is an office; matbakh, a place of cooking, is a kitchen.
How the name formed
- nur
- manar
- Manar
Related forms: Manar · Menar · Manar
Pronouncing Manar
muh-NAR
Two syllables with the stress at the end. The Arabic r is tapped and the final vowel is fully open; English speakers use an American r, which is the ordinary adaptation.
Nicknames for Manar
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 200247 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3069reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- +13.3%17 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Manar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Manar in Arabic — same name
- Menar in Turkish — same name
- Manar in Persian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan, New York.
Manars among us
people named Manar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Manar
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rainbow test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Manar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rainbow climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rainbow's path sketches the road Manar is walking now.
Manar sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Manar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Manar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Arabic meaning with a concrete and vivid image.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no spelling difficulty in English.
- Related by root to a word English already has in minaret.
- It is close to Manal and Manara, both separate names.
- English speakers will front-stress it, which changes its shape.
- Outside Arab communities it is unfamiliar and will need repeating.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Manar to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Manar? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Manar
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Manars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Manar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Manar in 2025?
- Manar ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Manar?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Manar — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Manar with classmates?
- Manar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Manar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Manar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Manar and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle