Mantoloking is a small coastal borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, on the Barnegat Peninsula, the narrow barrier island that separates Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. It lies between Bay Head to the north and the Lavallette area to the south, occupying a short, low-density stretch of the Jersey Shore. The name was coined in 1881 by founder Frederick W. Downer, who believed the site was the original home of the Manta band of the Lenni Lenape; "Mantoloking" is thus a late-nineteenth-century invention rather than a Native American original. The borough's identity is defined by water on both sides and by a deliberate absence of the commercial development found elsewhere on the shore. With a year-round population of about 330 that swells to several thousand in summer, Mantoloking is a residential and seasonal community of oceanfront and bayside homes, with no boardwalk and no downtown of its own. The town's recent history is inseparable from Hurricane Sandy, whose 2012 storm surge breached the peninsula here and cut a temporary inlet between bay and ocean, destroying many homes. Mantoloking's recovery became a defining project: a steel sea wall, beach replenishment, and raised dunes now protect the borough, and much of its housing has been elevated or rebuilt to modern standards, giving the town a distinctly resilient, contemporary coastal character. Students attend the Point Pleasant Beach School District for kindergarten through twelfth grade under a sending/receiving arrangement. Mantoloking suits buyers seeking a quiet, exclusive barrier-island setting — ocean and bay access, privacy, and a rebuilt, storm-hardened streetscape — within a short drive of the livelier shore towns and the Garden State Parkway.