Very Common

Michael

Of Hebrew origin, meaning "who is like God?"

Roughly 3,738,917 people in the United States go by the first name Michael, which ranks #18 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Michael today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Michael births was 1957 (93,041 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to James (3,142,267).

This page is the full Name Census profile for Michael. 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 Michael with official rankings and popularity over time.

Key insights

• Although Michael is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 21,865 girls registered with the name since 1880.
• Over 3.7 million Americans are estimated to carry the first name Michael, putting it among the highest-count names in the entire dataset.

People living today

3.7M

~ 1 in 92 Americans

Peak year

1957

93,041 babies that year

Average age

years old

2024 SSA rank

#18

Tracked since 1880

Census

Michael in the 2020 Census

The 2020 Census recorded 3,476,715 people with the first name Michael, which placed it at #1 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

National first-name rank

People counted

3.5M

3,476,715 in the published race/origin table

Per 100,000

1151.1

People with this name in 2020

Largest reported group

White

79.0% of people with this name

Demographics

Ancestry and ethnicity for Michael

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michael is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Black (7.9%) and Hispanic (7.8%). 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 Michael 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 Michael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.

White79.0% · 2,747,318
Black or African American7.9% · 274,177
Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 270,721
Two or more races2.9% · 99,581
Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 66,408
American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 18,510

Gender

Gender distribution for Michael

Out of the 4,440,391 babies given the name Michael since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.

100% male

Male4,418,526 (99.5%)Female21,865 (0.5%)

Michael as a male name

Ranked #18 in 2024
8,189 male births in 2024
Peak: 1957 (92,786 births)

Michael as a female name

Ranked #7,450 in 2024
15 female births in 2024
Peak: 1986 (590 births)

2020 Census snapshot

In the 2020 Census sex table, Michael appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,476,721 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.

100% male

Male3,469,434 (99.8%)Female7,287 (0.2%)

Popularity

Michael: popularity over time

The SSA tracks Michael from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 839,779 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.

Babies born per year

MaleFemale

Decades

Michael 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 Michael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

Decade	Male	Female	Total
1880s	3,558	0	3,558
1890s	3,926	7	3,933
1900s	5,220	12	5,232
1910s	30,859	150	31,009
1920s	37,894	303	38,197
1930s	56,000	384	56,384
1940s	336,564	1,547	338,111
1950s	837,466	2,313	839,779
1960s	833,070	3,679	836,749
1970s	707,368	5,075	712,443
1980s	663,824	5,202	669,026
1990s	462,451	1,934	464,385
2000s	250,702	823	251,525
2010s	145,171	331	145,502
2020s	44,453	105	44,558

Geography

Where Michaels live

The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Michael, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 86,712 registrations each.

Origin

Meaning and history of Michael

The name Michael has its origins in the Hebrew name Mikhael, which means "Who is like God?" It is derived from the rhetorical question "Mi ka'El," with "Mi" meaning "Who" and "El" referring to God. The name dates back to ancient biblical times and appears in the Old Testament as the name of an archangel.

Michael is a prominent name in various Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the Bible, Michael is depicted as the leader of the heavenly armies and plays a significant role in the Book of Revelation. The archangel Michael is also mentioned in the Quran, where he is revered as one of the most powerful angels.

The name Michael gained widespread popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Europe. It was a common name among royalty and nobility, and many historical figures bore this name. One of the earliest recorded examples is Michael III, who ruled as the Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867 CE.

Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Michael. In the 11th century, Michael I Cerularius was the Patriarch of Constantinople and played a pivotal role in the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches. Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was a renowned English scientist whose groundbreaking work in electromagnetism laid the foundations for the modern understanding of electricity.

In the realm of literature, Michael Nyman (born 1944) is a celebrated English composer known for his minimalist style and film scores. Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was an American author famous for his science fiction novels, including "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain."

Another famous Michael is Michael Jordan (born 1963), widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. His remarkable career with the Chicago Bulls and his impact on the sport have made him an iconic figure in sports history.

Notable bearers

Famous people named Michael

People

Michael + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with Michael as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.

Other names starting with M

Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.

FAQ

Michael: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named Michael?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,738,917 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Michael 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 92 US residents.

Is Michael a common name?

We classify Michael as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,440,391 babies have been registered with this name.

When was Michael most popular?

The single biggest year for Michael was 1957, when 93,041 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Michael is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

How common was Michael in the 2020 Census?

The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,476,715 people with the name Michael, or 1151.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1 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 Michael 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 Michael?

In the 2020 Census sex table, Michael appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,476,721 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Michael?

Which group reports the name Michael most often in the Census?

White is the largest reported group for people named Michael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.0% (2,747,318 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 Michael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.

Is Michael a male name?

Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Michael in the SSA data are male. 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 Michael still being used today?

Yes. The SSA still recorded Michael 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 Michael 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 common is the name Michael?

For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Michael on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.

Name Census

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There are 3.7M people

with the first name

Michael

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