Manuel

Manuel begins in Hebrew, in the phrase Immanu-el, which means "god is with us." It reached Spanish through the Gospel name Emmanuel, given to the awaited child, and Spain shortened it and kept it as its own. From there it spread across the Spanish-speaking world.

The name carries a whole household of forms. Manuela answers it for women, and Manolo is the diminutive friends reach for. A boy signing Manuel on a school register might be Manolo by the afternoon.

Its meaning stays close to the surface. "God is with us" is the phrase itself, translated word for word, rather than a later gloss added by tradition. Polish readers meet it as "bóg z nami."

Manuel de Falla, who composed Nights in the Gardens of Spain, carried the name into concert halls. So did kings of Portugal. The name travels well. Short, open, easy to say in most languages, it lands much the same in Kraków as in Seville. Whoever bears it keeps a Hebrew sentence and a Spanish sound in one word: Manuel.