Manning
Masculine · “Son of Mann”
Manning is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,840 boys against 44 girls since 1880.
Manning was a surname before it was anything else, from the Old English personal name Mann with the -ing ending that means son of. Nineteenth-century Americans used it freely as a first name, and it peaked in 1881 — long before the football family that owns the word today.
How old is the name Manning?
Manning first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Manning alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 1,100 people named Manning are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Manning most popular?
Manning peaked in 1881, reaching #653 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 4,555 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mann to Manning
The story of Manning
The English surname is old and widespread, thick in East Anglia and the south. It traveled to America early and, like Sidney, Chester and Wallace, was pressed into service as a first name during the long nineteenth-century fashion for surname names, often a mother's maiden name carried forward. Manning's American peak in 1881 sits at the height of that fashion, and its decline follows the fashion's own. What kept the word alive afterwards was a family from New Orleans: Archie Manning quarterbacked the Saints from 1971, and his sons Peyton and Eli between them won four Super Bowls, which has made Manning a football surname first and a given name a distant second.
Meaning
Son of Mann
From Old English Manning, a patronymic of the personal name Mann, itself the ordinary word for a person. The same formation exists in Germanic languages generally. A separate Irish surname Ó Mainnín is anglicized as Manning too, and bearers of the surname may descend from either; the given name is taken from the surname without regard to which.
How the name formed
- Mann
- Manning
Related forms: Ó Mainnín
Pronouncing Manning
MAN-ing
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the surname. There is no ambiguity.
Nicknames for Manning
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 201541 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #653reached in 1881
- Change vs 2023
- −35.7%18 in 2025, from 28
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.
Manning in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Mainnín in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Louisiana, Tennessee.
Mannings among us
people named Manning are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Manning
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Manning 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
Manning beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Manning in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning and formation are documented and simple.
- Manny is available as a warm everyday form.
- It is spelled and said the same way by everyone, first time.
- It reads as a football surname to most Americans under sixty.
- The first syllable is the word man, which a schoolyard will find.
- It has been essentially unused as a first name for over a century.
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Manning
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mannings are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Manning are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Manning in 2025?
- Manning ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Manning?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Manning — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Manning with classmates?
- Manning will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Manning
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Manning? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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