Manasa
A feminine name of Sanskrit origin meaning "born of the mind" or "intellectual".
Name Census estimates that about 278 living Americans carry the first name Manasa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Manasa today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Manasa births was 2006 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Manasa. 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 Manasa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
278
~ 1 in 1,232,929 Americans
Peak year
2006
22 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2021 SSA rank
#16,800
Tracked since 1989
Census
Manasa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,367 people with the first name Manasa, which placed it at #9,937 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
#9,937
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,367 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
95.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Manasa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manasa is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Manasa 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 Manasa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander95.0% · 1,299
- White2.1% · 29
- Black or African American1.3% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 9
- Two or more races0.6% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Popularity
Manasa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Manasa from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 160 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
Manasa 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 Manasa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Manasas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Manasa
The name Manasa has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient language of the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the word "manas," which means "mind" or "intellect." This name is associated with the Hindu goddess Manasa, who is the serpent goddess and the deity of fertility, prosperity, and the mind.
The name Manasa is found in various Hindu texts and scriptures, such as the Manasa Mangala Kavya, a medieval Bengali poem that narrates the legends and stories surrounding the worship of Goddess Manasa. This poem is believed to have been composed by the 16th-century Bengali poet Bijoy Gupta.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Manasa can be traced back to the 5th century BCE, when it was mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit text, the Atharvaveda. The name gained popularity in various regions of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Bengal, where the worship of Goddess Manasa was widespread.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Manasa. One such person was Manasa Devi (1498-1598), a renowned Bengali poet and saint who is credited with composing numerous devotional songs and poems dedicated to Goddess Manasa.
Another famous Manasa was Manasa Mangal (1869-1904), a Bengali writer and social reformer who advocated for women's education and played a significant role in the Bengali Renaissance.
In the field of classical Indian dance, Manasa Vijayaraghavan (born 1961) is a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer who has received numerous accolades, including the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honors.
Manasa Ramadass (born 1972) is an Indian classical vocalist and composer who has performed extensively in India and abroad, and has received several prestigious awards for her contributions to Carnatic music.
Lastly, Manasa Varanasi (born 1988) is an Indian mathematician and computer scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of computational topology and has received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for her work.
People
Manasa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Manasa 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
Manasa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Manasa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 278 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Manasa 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 1,232,929 US residents.
Is Manasa a common name?
We classify Manasa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 283 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Manasa most popular?
The single biggest year for Manasa was 2006, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Manasa is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Manasa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,367 people with the name Manasa, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,937 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 Manasa 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 Manasa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Manasa leans strongly female. 1,346 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 23 male bearers (1.7%). 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 Manasa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manasa is Asian/Pacific Islander at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.1%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Manasa most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Manasa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.0% (1,299 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 Manasa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Manasa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Manasa in the SSA data are female. 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 Manasa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Manasa 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 Manasa 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 Manasa as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Manasa, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.