Michael

3,476,721 people in America carry this name — ranked #1 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it MY kuhl

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M AY1 K AH0 L — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 3,476,721 2020 Census
  • Rank #1 Very common
  • Per 100,000 1,151.1 about 1 in 95 people
  • As a surname 37,760 ranked #909 the other way round

What Michael means and where it comes from

Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “who is like to God”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Michael through the years

4,405,274 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1957, with 92,973 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50s 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Michael

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Michael Matthew — same opening
  • Michael Mark — same opening
  • Michael Larry — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Nicknames for Michael

Short forms as recorded in a 19th-century glossary of Christian names, so the list is old rather than complete.

Going quiet

Michael has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.

Boys or girls: who is called Michael?

99.8% men
7,287 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The states where Michael is most common

In Rhode Island the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Rhode Island ×1.8
  • Massachusetts ×1.5
  • Connecticut ×1.5
  • Delaware ×1.5
  • the District of Columbia ×1.4

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names built the same way as Michael

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The same name elsewhere

  • Mik Esth
  • Misa Serv
  • Miho Serv
  • Miha Slov
  • Mick Ir
  • Miska Serv.|Hung
  • Miljo Serv
  • Mikli Esth
  • Mikke Lett
  • Mikel Esth
  • Mikas Swedish
  • Mihal Slov.|Hung
  • Micha German
  • Mischa Russian

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin