Manas
A Sanskrit masculine name meaning "mind" or "intellect".
Name Census estimates that about 317 living Americans carry the first name Manas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Manas today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Manas births was 2002 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Manas. 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 Manas with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
317
~ 1 in 1,081,244 Americans
Peak year
2002
25 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,789
Tracked since 1995
Census
Manas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 799 people with the first name Manas, which placed it at #14,674 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
#14,674
National first-name rank
People counted
799
799 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
89.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Manas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manas is Asian/Pacific Islander at 89.7%. The next largest groups are White (7.5%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Manas 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 Manas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander89.7% · 717
- White7.5% · 60
- Black or African American1.4% · 11
- Two or more races0.6% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Manas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Manas from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 181 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Manas 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 Manas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Manas' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Manas
The name Manas is of Sanskrit origin and has its roots in ancient Indian culture and Hindu mythology. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "manas," which means "mind" or "intellect." The name is believed to have been in use since the Vedic period, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE.
One of the earliest references to the name Manas can be found in the Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu legal text that dates back to around the 1st century BCE. In this text, Manas is mentioned as the name of one of the progenitors of humanity, descended from the mythological figure Manu.
The name Manas also appears in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. In this epic, Manas is mentioned as the son of the sage Valmiki, who is credited with authoring the Ramayana, another important Sanskrit epic.
In the Puranas, a vast collection of ancient Hindu mythological texts, Manas is often associated with the concept of the mind or consciousness. The Bhagavata Purana, for instance, mentions Manas as a personification of the mind, representing the faculty of thinking and reasoning.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Manas. One of the earliest recorded examples is Manas Kalindi, a 7th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of astronomy and the study of planetary motions.
Another famous bearer of the name was Manas Ranjan Das, a prominent 19th-century Bengali poet and playwright who was known for his works that explored the themes of love, devotion, and spirituality. He was born in 1837 and passed away in 1902.
In the 20th century, Manas Kaul was a renowned Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who gained recognition for his experimental and avant-garde cinematic style. He was born in 1942 and passed away in 2014.
Manas Chatterji, born in 1945, is a distinguished Indian philosopher and scholar who has made significant contributions to the study of Indian philosophy, particularly in the areas of Vedanta and Buddhism.
Manas Chowdhury, born in 1950, is a prominent Bangladeshi academic and economist who has served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chittagong and has made notable contributions to the field of development economics.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Manas, a name that continues to hold cultural and historical significance, particularly in the Indian subcontinent.
People
Manas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Manas as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Manas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Manas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 317 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Manas 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 1,081,244 US residents.
Is Manas a common name?
We classify Manas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 320 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Manas most popular?
The single biggest year for Manas was 2002, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Manas is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Manas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 799 people with the name Manas, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,674 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 Manas 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 Manas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Manas leans strongly male. 786 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 13 female bearers (1.6%). 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 Manas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manas is Asian/Pacific Islander at 89.7%. The next largest groups are White (7.5%) and Black (1.4%). 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 Manas most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Manas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.7% (717 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 Manas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Manas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Manas 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 Manas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Manas 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 Manas 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 have the name Manas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.