Michoel
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 219 living Americans carry the first name Michoel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Michoel today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Michoel births was 2022 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Michoel. 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 Michoel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
219
~ 1 in 1,565,088 Americans
Peak year
2022
24 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,811
Tracked since 1991
Census
Michoel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 203 people with the first name Michoel, which placed it at #38,074 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
#38,074
National first-name rank
People counted
203
203 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Michoel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michoel is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Black (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 Michoel 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 Michoel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.6% · 184
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 10
- Black or African American3.0% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 2
- Two or more races0.5% · 1
Popularity
Michoel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Michoel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 85 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Michoel 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 Michoel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Michoels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Michoel
The name Michoel is a Hebrew name that originated in ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "mi" meaning "who" and "el" meaning "God". The name Michoel translates to "who is like God" and is a rhetorical question implying that no one is like God.
The name Michoel is closely associated with the archangel Michael, who is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, the archangel Michael is portrayed as the protector of Israel and as a powerful warrior who leads the angels against the forces of evil.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Michoel can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish texts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The name is also mentioned in the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, which was compiled between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE.
Over the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Michoel. One of the most famous was Michoel ben Uzziel, a Jewish scholar and mystic who lived in the 1st century CE and is credited with authoring the Midrash on the Book of Genesis. Another notable Michoel was Michoel the Syrian, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and poet who wrote extensively on ethics and theology.
In the realm of religious leadership, Michoel ben Yosef of Volozhin (1803-1892) was a prominent Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudic scholar who founded the renowned Volozhin Yeshiva. Michoel Sofer (1599-1662), also known as the Chasam Sofer, was a renowned Austrian rabbi and Talmudic scholar who played a pivotal role in shaping Orthodox Judaism in the 19th century.
In more recent times, Michoel Naydich (1924-2021) was a prominent Hasidic rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean of a Talmudic academy) who played a significant role in the revival of Jewish life in the United States after the Holocaust.
People
Michoel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Michoel 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
Michoel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Michoel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 219 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Michoel 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 1,565,088 US residents.
Is Michoel a common name?
We classify Michoel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 221 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Michoel most popular?
The single biggest year for Michoel was 2022, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Michoel is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Michoel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 203 people with the name Michoel, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,074 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 Michoel 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 Michoel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Michoel leans strongly male. 205 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 3 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Michoel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michoel is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.9%) and Black (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 Michoel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Michoel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.6% (184 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 Michoel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Michoel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Michoel 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 Michoel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Michoel 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 Michoel 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 Michoel?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Michoel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.