Mikael
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Who is like God?"
Name Census estimates that about 5,887 living Americans carry the first name Mikael. It is a predominantly male name (95.1% of registrations). The average person named Mikael today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mikael births was 2023 (228 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mikael. 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 Mikael with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mikael is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 300 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
5.9K
~ 1 in 58,222 Americans
Peak year
2023
228 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,132
Tracked since 1944
Census
Mikael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,988 people with the first name Mikael, which placed it at #3,918 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
#3,918
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
4,988 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mikael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikael is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.4%) and Black (19.0%). 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 Mikael 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 Mikael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.6% · 2,277
- Hispanic or Latino21.4% · 1,067
- Black or African American19.0% · 947
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.0% · 350
- Two or more races6.3% · 316
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Mikael
Mikael leans heavily male at 95.1% of total registrations, but 300 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mikael as a male name
- Ranked #1,132 in 2024
- 187 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (223 births)
Mikael as a female name
- Ranked #16,796 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1998 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mikael leans strongly male. 4,678 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 315 female bearers (6.3%).
Popularity
Mikael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mikael from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,715 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mikael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mikael 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 Mikael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Mikael, while Missouri, Louisiana, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 130 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mikael
The name Mikael has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the rhetorical question "Mi ka'El", which translates to "Who is like God?". It is a variant of the name Michael, which has been widely used across various cultures and religions.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mikael can be traced back to the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible, where it refers to the archangel Michael, one of the principal angels in Jewish tradition and later adopted in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible, Michael is depicted as the leader of the heavenly host and the protector of Israel.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Mikael. In the 12th century, Mikael Glykas was a Byzantine theologian and scholar who wrote extensively on Christian doctrine and philosophy. During the 16th century, Mikael Agricola, a Finnish scholar and clergyman, played a crucial role in the development of the Finnish literary language by translating the New Testament into Finnish.
In the realm of art and literature, Mikael Ancher was a Danish painter and a member of the Skagen Painters, a renowned artistic colony in Denmark during the late 19th century. Mikael Norbeck, a Swedish author and playwright, gained recognition for his works that explored themes of social realism and working-class life in the early 20th century.
Another notable figure bearing the name Mikael was Mikael Tariverdiev, a Soviet and Russian composer who composed numerous film scores and orchestral works in the 20th century. His music for the acclaimed film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" remains a cultural landmark in Russian cinema.
While the name Mikael has its roots in Hebrew and Judeo-Christian traditions, it has been adopted and adapted across various cultures, reflecting the diverse histories and contexts in which it has been used over the centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Mikael
People
Mikael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mikael 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
Mikael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mikael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,887 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mikael 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 58,222 US residents.
Is Mikael a common name?
We classify Mikael as "Rare". It ranks above 96.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,061 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mikael most popular?
The single biggest year for Mikael was 2023, when 228 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mikael is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mikael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,988 people with the name Mikael, or 1.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,918 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 Mikael 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 Mikael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mikael leans strongly male. 4,678 people counted with this name were male (93.7%), compared with 315 female bearers (6.3%). 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 Mikael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikael is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.4%) and Black (19.0%). 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 Mikael most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mikael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.6% (2,277 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 Mikael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mikael a male name?
Yes, 95.1% of people registered as Mikael 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 Mikael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mikael 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 Mikael 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 Mikael?
See how many people have the name Mikael on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.