Mandela
A boys’ name with no widely documented etymology — three syllables, given to 11 babies a year in the US.
Mandela by the numbers
Mandela was given to 11 American babies in 2017, the most recent full year we hold.
Its American peak was 36 babies in 1990, making it a 1990s name.
What we can tell you about Mandela
Not every name has a meaning to trace. Plenty are coined rather than inherited — invented outright, blended from two names, or respelled from an older one — and where we cannot find an etymology we can stand behind, we would rather say so than make one up. What follows comes from the birth records themselves.
Spelled almost the same
Other names in the records within a letter or two of Mandela. Close spellings are not always related names, but they are usually worth seeing together.
Names about as common as Mandela
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