Mireille
A feminine name of French origin meaning "admirable" or "wonderful".
Name Census estimates that about 801 living Americans carry the first name Mireille. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mireille today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mireille births was 2018 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mireille. 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.
People living today
801
~ 1 in 427,908 Americans
Peak year
2018
33 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,245
Tracked since 1949
Popularity
Mireille: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mireille 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 221 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mireille remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mireille 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 Mireille during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mireilles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Mireille, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mireille
Mireille is a French feminine given name derived from the Occitan word "mirgalha", which means "looking glass" or "mirror". It originated in the Occitan region of southern France during the Middle Ages.
The name is thought to have been inspired by the Latin word "mirari", meaning "to admire" or "to wonder at". This suggests that Mireille may have been used as a name to describe a beautiful or admirable woman, akin to a reflection in a mirror.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Mireille can be found in the 19th-century French epic poem "Mirèio" by Frédéric Mistral. The poem tells the story of a young Provençal woman named Mirèio and her love for a basket maker. The poem's popularity helped to popularize the name Mireille in France and beyond.
Notable historical figures named Mireille include Mireille Mathieu, a French singer and actress born in 1946. She is known for her hit songs such as "Mon Credo", "Pardonne-moi ce Caprice d'Enfant", and "La Dernière Valse".
Another famous Mireille was Mireille Balin, a French actress born in 1909 and best known for her roles in films like "Le Jour se lève" (1939) and "Les Visiteurs du soir" (1942).
In the world of literature, Mireille Havet was a French novelist and playwright born in 1898. She wrote several novels, including "Le Rendez-vous" and "Le Mangeur de rêves".
Mireille Porte, born in 1944, was a French activist and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989.
Lastly, Mireille Knoll was a French Holocaust survivor who was tragically murdered in an anti-Semitic attack in 2018 at the age of 85.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who have borne the name Mireille, a beautiful and meaningful name with roots in the Occitan language and culture of southern France.
People
Mireille + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mireille 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
Mireille: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mireille?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 801 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mireille 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 427,908 US residents.
Is Mireille a common name?
We classify Mireille as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 838 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mireille most popular?
The single biggest year for Mireille was 2018, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mireille is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mireille a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mireille 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.
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.