Manette
A feminine French diminutive of the given name Marie, meaning "little rebellion".
Name Census estimates that about 194 living Americans carry the first name Manette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Manette today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Manette births was 1958 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Manette. 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.
People living today
194
~ 1 in 1,766,775 Americans
Peak year
1958
18 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
1984 SSA rank
#11,467
Tracked since 1913
Census
Manette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 419 people with the first name Manette, which placed it at #23,378 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
#23,378
National first-name rank
People counted
419
419 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Manette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manette is White at 53.7%. The next largest groups are Black (28.9%) and Hispanic (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 Manette 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 Manette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.7% · 225
- Black or African American28.9% · 121
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 27
- Two or more races3.3% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Popularity
Manette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Manette from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 110 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Manette 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 Manette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Manettes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Manette
The name Manette originates from the French language, derived from the French word "manette," meaning a small hand or handle. Its origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages in France, around the 13th or 14th century.
The earliest recorded use of Manette as a given name dates back to the 15th century, during the era of the French Renaissance. It was a diminutive form of the name Marie or Marianne, often used as a pet name or nickname.
In French literature, one of the earliest mentions of the name Manette can be found in the novel "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, published in 1859. The novel's central character, Lucie Manette, played a significant role in the story set during the French Revolution.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Manette. One of the earliest recorded was Manette de Bures, a 13th-century French noblewoman who was the wife of Gilles de Bures, a prominent knight during the Crusades.
Another noteworthy Manette was Manette Salomon (1590-1670), a French midwife and author who wrote one of the earliest treatises on midwifery and childbirth, titled "La Sage Femme Françoise."
In the 18th century, Manette Boucher (1727-1804) was a French painter and miniaturist who achieved recognition for her portraiture and was admitted to the prestigious Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture.
In the 19th century, Manette de Navarro (1828-1905) was a French operatic soprano who performed in major opera houses across Europe, including the Paris Opera.
More recently, Manette Kadyan (1889-1943) was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II, known for her efforts in helping Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution in the Netherlands.
While the name Manette has its roots in French culture, it has been adopted and used in various other parts of the world, particularly in regions with French influence or connections.
People
Manette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Manette 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
Manette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Manette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 194 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Manette 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 1,766,775 US residents.
Is Manette a common name?
We classify Manette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 304 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Manette most popular?
The single biggest year for Manette was 1958, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Manette is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Manette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 419 people with the name Manette, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,378 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 Manette 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 Manette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Manette leans strongly female. 408 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 9 male bearers (2.2%). 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 Manette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Manette is White at 53.7%. The next largest groups are Black (28.9%) and Hispanic (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 Manette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Manette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.7% (225 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 Manette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Manette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Manette 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 Manette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Manette 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 Manette 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 named Manette?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.