Mandela

History & Origin

Mandela is the Xhosa family name of Nelson Mandela, taken up by some American parents as a given name honoring the South African statesman. Mandela spent decades imprisoned for opposing apartheid, was released in 1990, and became his country's first democratically elected president in 1994, a global symbol of endurance and reconciliation. Used as a first name, it is a tribute rather than a traditional personal name.

In the U.S. record Mandela appears from the mid-1980s, as the international anti-apartheid movement peaked, and reaches its small high in 1990 — the year of his release — before easing off, with continued scattered use since. A boy named Mandela from that peak is now in his thirties. It has always been rare, borne as an honor name; its meaning is inseparable from the man it commemorates.