Mi
A feminine Chinese name meaning "beautiful" or "elegant".
Name Census estimates that about 673 living Americans carry the first name Mi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mi today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mi births was 1981 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mi. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
673
~ 1 in 509,293 Americans
Peak year
1981
28 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,634
Tracked since 1954
Census
Mi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,562 people with the first name Mi, which placed it at #3,255 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,255
National first-name rank
People counted
6.6K
6,562 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
88.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.0%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Hispanic (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mi described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander88.0% · 5,774
- White5.9% · 385
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 195
- Black or African American2.1% · 138
- Two or more races1.0% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 6
Popularity
Mi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mi from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 201 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mi by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Kansas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Mi, while New York, California, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mi
The given name Mi has its origins in various languages and cultures around the world. In Japanese, it can be written using the kanji characters 美 (meaning "beautiful") or 実 (meaning "fruit" or "truth"). As a standalone name, Mi is a popular Japanese feminine name often given to girls.
In Chinese, the character 米 is pronounced as "Mi" and means "rice" or "grain". It can be used as a surname or as part of compound given names for both genders. The name Mi is also found in Korean, where it is derived from the Chinese character 美 meaning "beautiful".
In Vietnamese, the name Mi is a variant of the name My, which can be a feminine name meaning "beautiful" or a masculine name meaning "brave". It is also a common diminutive form of longer Vietnamese names.
In Italian, Mi is a shortened form of the name Michela or Michele, which are derived from the Hebrew name Michael, meaning "who is like God?". It can be used as a given name or a nickname for both genders.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mi can be found in the ancient Chinese text "Shijing" (Book of Songs), which dates back to the 11th-7th centuries BC. In this text, Mi is mentioned as a place name.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the given name Mi:
1. Mi Fu (1051-1107), a renowned Chinese calligrapher and painter during the Song Dynasty.
2. Mi Zong (1079-1163), a Chinese Buddhist monk and poet who lived during the Song Dynasty.
3. Mi Yeong (1590-1647), a Korean military leader and scholar during the Joseon Dynasty.
4. Mi Qing (1858-1919), a Chinese scholar and philosopher during the late Qing Dynasty.
5. Mi Rai (1556-1644), a Japanese Buddhist monk and poet during the Edo period.
These are just a few examples of the diverse history and cultural significance of the given name Mi across various regions and time periods.
People
Mi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 673 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mi going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 509,293 US residents.
Is Mi a common name?
We classify Mi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 721 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mi most popular?
The single biggest year for Mi was 1981, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mi is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,562 people with the name Mi, or 2.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,255 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mi in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mi leans strongly female. 6,056 people counted with this name were female (92.2%), compared with 512 male bearers (7.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.0%. The next largest groups are White (5.9%) and Hispanic (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Mi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.0% (5,774 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mi in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mi in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mi can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Mi?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.