MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Manu mean?
Manu is a primordial human figure and lawgiver in Sanskrit literature. The name belongs to the man family of thinking and human identity.
Pronunciation
IAST: manu
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
मनु
Letter-by-letter: manu
Conventional spelling
Odia
ମନୁ
Conventional spelling
Tamil
மனு
Conventional spelling
Malayalam
മനു
Conventional spelling
Devanagari
मनू
Letter-by-letter: manū
3,944 records for this spelling. Historical records ↗
Devanagari
मानू
Letter-by-letter: mānū
1,809 records for this spelling. Historical records ↗
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Manu in Indian usage
60,145 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Used for both boys and girls in these historical records; the recorded sex does not determine anyone’s identity.
- Recorded as female: 18,491 records (30.7%).
- Recorded as male: 41,654 records (69.3%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1930s | 558 |
| 1940s | 1,376 |
| 1950s | 2,849 |
| 1960s | 5,513 |
| 1970s | 9,886 |
| 1980s | 20,041 |
| 1990s | 19,733 |
| Other decades | 189 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Kerala | 17,680 |
| Bihar | 10,003 |
| Odisha | 6,657 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 6,231 |
| Jharkhand | 4,541 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 4,065 |
| Rajasthan | 3,933 |
| Haryana | 1,758 |
| Assam | 1,388 |
| Delhi | 1,313 |
| Uttarakhand | 481 |
| Tripura | 458 |
| Punjab | 300 |
| Chandigarh | 253 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 223 |
| Sikkim | 216 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 147 |
| Maharashtra | 105 |
| Other states | 393 |
How to read these numbers
Small counts and a second count where needed are withheld for privacy; an omitted value is not zero. Coverage, dates and suppression.
Recorded abroad
Official births registered in 2025, for the exact spelling shown.
| Jurisdiction | Spelling / recorded sex | Births | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | Manu / M | 5 | 3,684 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
Explore related lists
Sources
- Historical Indian voter-record totals, v3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Historical usage; CC0 1.0; birth years 1910–2001
- England & Wales 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Manu; Table_6, C4042 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Manu; Table_6, C4042
- Wiktionary: मनु ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.