Michiel
A masculine name of French origin meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 828 living Americans carry the first name Michiel. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Michiel today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Michiel births was 1956 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Michiel. 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 Michiel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
828
~ 1 in 413,955 Americans
Peak year
1956
39 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2006 SSA rank
#8,244
Tracked since 1915
Census
Michiel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 791 people with the first name Michiel, which placed it at #14,777 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
#14,777
National first-name rank
People counted
791
791 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Michiel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michiel is White at 75.3%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Michiel 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 Michiel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.3% · 596
- Black or African American10.1% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino6.7% · 53
- Two or more races5.2% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Michiel
Out of the 1,045 babies given the name Michiel 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.
Michiel as a male name
- Ranked #9,288 in 2006
- 8 male births in 2006
- Peak: 1956 (39 births)
Michiel as a female name
- Ranked #8,244 in 1969
- 5 female births in 1969
- Peak: 1969 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Michiel leans strongly male. 723 people counted with this name were male (90.8%), compared with 73 female bearers (9.2%).
Popularity
Michiel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Michiel from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 315 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
Decades
Michiel 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 Michiel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Michiels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Michiel, while Michigan, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Michiel
The given name Michiel is derived from the Hebrew name Michael, which means "who is like God?". It is a name with ancient roots dating back to biblical times. The name Michael appears in the Old Testament as one of the archangels and the name was widely adopted across various cultures and languages.
In Dutch, the name Michiel is a variant spelling of the more common Michael. It is believed to have originated in the Low Countries region of northwestern Europe, which includes modern-day Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of northern France. The Dutch spelling Michiel emerged during the Middle Ages and was widely used among Dutch-speaking communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Michiel can be found in the 9th century, when it was used by Michiel de Oude (Michael the Elder), a Frankish nobleman and Count of Teisterbant. Another notable bearer of the name was Michiel van der Heijden, a 14th-century Dutch philosopher and theologian who wrote extensively on scholasticism.
In the world of arts and literature, Michiel Sweerts was a 17th-century Flemish painter known for his genre scenes and portraits. Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676) was a renowned Dutch admiral who played a crucial role in the Dutch Golden Age, leading the Dutch naval forces to several victories against the English and French fleets.
The name Michiel also had notable bearers in the realm of science and exploration. Michiel Adriaanszoon de Ruyter (1570-1638) was a Dutch explorer and navigator who made significant contributions to the mapping of the Arctic region. Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (1567-1641) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his exquisite portraits of the Dutch elite.
During the 20th century, Michiel de Ruyter (1914-1992) was a Dutch politician and diplomat who served as the Netherlands' Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977. Michiel Kersten (1963-) is a contemporary Dutch author and journalist known for his works on organized crime and investigative journalism.
The name Michiel has a rich history spanning centuries and has been borne by numerous influential figures across various fields, reflecting its enduring popularity and cultural significance within the Dutch-speaking world.
People
Michiel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Michiel 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
Michiel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Michiel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 828 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Michiel 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 413,955 US residents.
Is Michiel a common name?
We classify Michiel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,045 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Michiel most popular?
The single biggest year for Michiel was 1956, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Michiel is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Michiel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 791 people with the name Michiel, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,777 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 Michiel 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 Michiel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Michiel leans strongly male. 723 people counted with this name were male (90.8%), compared with 73 female bearers (9.2%). 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 Michiel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michiel is White at 75.3%. The next largest groups are Black (10.1%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Michiel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Michiel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.3% (596 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 Michiel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Michiel a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Michiel 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 Michiel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Michiel 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 Michiel 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 have the name Michiel?
See how many people share the name Michiel on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.