Manuel

The name developed as a contracted variant of Immanuel in southern Europe. By the thirteenth century, municipal charters recorded the spelling in routine administrative registers. It entered United States birth records upon their debut in 1880 and has maintained an unbroken presence on the national tally ever since.

The name reads as someone who keeps a spare house key hidden inside an empty sprinkler head. With an estimated average age of forty, it belongs firmly to an era that remembers when long-distance phone calls cost extra after five in the afternoon. The name reached its high-water mark in 2005, when about three thousand newborn boys received the spelling in a single year. It tends to be pictured leaning against a tailgate, waiting patiently for everyone else to finish packing. The name rarely initiates small talk in an elevator and never apologizes for the silence.