Manfred
Masculine · “man of peace”
Manfred belongs to a king who lost Italy in an afternoon and to a poem that invented a kind of hero. The historical one was the last of his line to hold the south, was killed at a battle that ended his family's rule, and was buried under a cairn of stones thrown by the passing army because he had been excommunicated and could not have a grave.
How old is the name Manfred?
Manfred first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Manfred alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 800 people named Manfred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Manfred most popular?
Manfred peaked in 1936, reaching #1142 nationally. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Germanic compound of man and peace to Manfred
The story of Manfred
He was Frederick the Second's son, held Sicily and southern Italy against the papacy for a decade, and was killed at Benevento in twelve sixty-six when a French army invited in by the pope broke his line. Dante puts him in Purgatory, blond and handsome with a scar over one eyebrow, describing his own burial: the soldiers threw stones over him at the bridgehead, and then a bishop had the bones dug up and scattered outside the kingdom because excommunicated men could not lie in consecrated ground. Five centuries later Byron gave the name to a poem about a man alone in the Alps with an unspecified and unforgivable guilt, and that poem is where the brooding solitary hero of the following century comes from.
Meaning
man of peace
Two Germanic elements, one meaning a man and one meaning peace, and the reading is settled. The combination is old and appears across the Germanic languages. As with most compound names of this kind it records a family's stock of elements rather than a wish for a particular child, so the peace should not be read as a prediction.
How the name formed
- A Germanic compound of man and peace
- A thirteenth-century king of Sicily killed at Benevento
- A Byron poem that shaped the Romantic hero
- Manfred in German and American use
Related forms: Manfred · Manfredi · Manfred
Pronouncing Manfred
MAN-fred
Two syllables, stress on the first. German says it the same way with a slightly crisper final consonant, and Italian adds a vowel and moves the stress, which makes the same name sound quite different in the country he ruled.
Nicknames for Manfred
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 196137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1142reached in 1936
- Change vs 2020
- −14.3%6 in 2022, from 7
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.
Manfred in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Manfred in German — same name
- Manfredi in Italian — same name
- Manfred in Dutch — same name
Manfreds among us
people named Manfred are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Manfred sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a genuine inherited name with a documented meaning and a long record.
- Fred and Manny are two very different short forms and both stand alone.
- It carries two genuinely interesting bearers, one historical and one literary.
- It reads as distinctly German, which is a feature for some families and not others.
- It will be heard as Manfred, Manford or Wilfred depending on how carefully people listen.
- It is firmly of an earlier generation in American records.
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Manfred
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Manfreds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Manfred are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Manfred in 2025?
- Manfred is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Manfred with classmates?
- Manfred will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Manfred? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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