Emmanuel
A masculine given name originating from Hebrew meaning "God is with us".
Name Census estimates that about 86,513 living Americans carry the first name Emmanuel. It sits at #181 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Emmanuel today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Emmanuel births was 2008 (2,868 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Emmanuel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Emmanuel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Emmanuel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 372 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
87K
~ 1 in 3,962 Americans
Peak year
2008
2,868 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#181
Tracked since 1898
Census
Emmanuel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 87,987 people with the first name Emmanuel, which placed it at #602 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#602
National first-name rank
People counted
88K
87,987 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
29.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
52.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Emmanuel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmanuel is Hispanic at 52.1%. The next largest groups are Black (33.4%) and White (6.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Emmanuel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Emmanuel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino52.1% · 45,880
- Black or African American33.4% · 29,407
- White6.9% · 6,090
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 4,816
- Two or more races1.7% · 1,527
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 267
Gender
Gender distribution for Emmanuel
Out of the 89,392 babies given the name Emmanuel since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Emmanuel as a male name
- Ranked #181 in 2024
- 2,047 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (2,862 births)
Emmanuel as a female name
- Ranked #16,024 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1986 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emmanuel appears almost entirely male. Of the 87,988 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Emmanuel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Emmanuel from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 25,296 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Emmanuel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Emmanuel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Emmanuel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emmanuels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Emmanuel, while Wyoming, Montana, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,713 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Emmanuel
The name Emmanuel has its origins in Hebrew, deriving from the combination of two words: "Immanu" meaning "with us" and "El" meaning "God". This translates to "God with us" or "God is with us". The name can be traced back to ancient Hebrew texts and scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, where it is mentioned as a symbolic name given to the promised Messiah.
In the Bible's Book of Isaiah, Emmanuel is referred to as a child who would be born to a virgin and would be a sign of God's presence among his people. This prophecy was later interpreted by Christians as referring to Jesus Christ, leading to the widespread adoption of the name Emmanuel in Christian cultures.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Emmanuel can be found in various ancient texts and records dating back to the first century AD. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Emmanuel, a Roman soldier who lived during the reign of Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, the name Emmanuel has been borne by numerous notable figures, including:
1. Emmanuel the Great, a Byzantine Emperor who ruled from 1361 to 1425, known for his efforts to reunite the Eastern and Western Christian churches.
2. Emmanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher, scientist, and mystic who lived from 1688 to 1772, renowned for his influential theological works.
3. Emmanuel Kant, a German philosopher from the 18th century (1724-1804), widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment period.
4. Emmanuel Lévinas, a French philosopher and Talmudic scholar who lived from 1906 to 1995, known for his work in ethics and phenomenology.
5. Emmanuel Macron, the current President of France, born in 1977, who took office in 2017.
The name Emmanuel has maintained its significance across various cultures and religions, particularly in Christianity, where it symbolizes the belief in the divine presence of God among humanity. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its deep-rooted biblical and historical associations, making it a name with rich cultural and spiritual significance.
People
Emmanuel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Emmanuel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Emmanuel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Emmanuel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 86,513 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Emmanuel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,962 US residents.
Is Emmanuel a common name?
We classify Emmanuel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 89,392 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Emmanuel most popular?
The single biggest year for Emmanuel was 2008, when 2,868 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Emmanuel is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Emmanuel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 87,987 people with the name Emmanuel, or 29.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #602 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Emmanuel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Emmanuel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Emmanuel appears almost entirely male. Of the 87,988 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Emmanuel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Emmanuel is Hispanic at 52.1%. The next largest groups are Black (33.4%) and White (6.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Emmanuel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Emmanuel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.1% (45,880 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Emmanuel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Emmanuel a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Emmanuel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Emmanuel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Emmanuel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Emmanuel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Emmanuel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.