Mishael
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "who is what God is?".
Name Census estimates that about 607 living Americans carry the first name Mishael. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 71.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Mishael today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mishael births was 1996 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mishael. 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
607
~ 1 in 564,669 Americans
Peak year
1996
24 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,552
Tracked since 1969
Gender
Gender distribution for Mishael
Mishael is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 622 total registrations, 444 (71.4%) were male and 178 (28.6%) were female.
Mishael as a male name
- Ranked #9,552 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (19 births)
Mishael as a female name
- Ranked #18,285 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 1997 (10 births)
Popularity
Mishael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mishael from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 174 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mishael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mishael 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 Mishael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mishaels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mishael
The name Mishael is a Hebrew name derived from the elements "mi" meaning "who" and "El" meaning "God". It is believed to have originated in ancient Israel and has been in use for thousands of years. The name is often interpreted to mean "who is like God".
Mishael is found in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. It was the name given to one of the four young men from the tribe of Judah who were taken captive to Babylon along with Daniel. Mishael was known in Babylon by the name Meshach. In the Book of Daniel, Mishael and his companions refused to worship the golden idol erected by King Nebuchadnezzar, leading to their famous deliverance from the fiery furnace.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Mishael is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the 3rd century BCE. The name appears in several scrolls, including the War Scroll and the Damascus Document, indicating it was in use among the Essene community at Qumran.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Mishael. One of the earliest was Mishael ben Uzziel, a 1st-century BCE Jewish scholar and one of the famous Tannaim, the rabbis who lived during the period of the Mishnah. Another was Mishael ben Shesheth, a 9th-century CE Karaite Jewish scholar and author from Jerusalem.
In the Christian tradition, there was Mishael the Confessor, a 9th-century Byzantine monk and saint who was exiled for his opposition to iconoclasm. A later figure was Mishael Shulamit, a 16th-century Italian Jewish poet and writer from Ferrara.
In more recent times, Mishael Cheshin (1923-2015) was an Israeli Supreme Court judge who served for over 30 years, and Mishael Caspi (1924-2001) was an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset.
People
Mishael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mishael 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
Mishael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mishael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 607 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mishael 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 564,669 US residents.
Is Mishael a common name?
We classify Mishael as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 622 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mishael most popular?
The single biggest year for Mishael was 1996, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mishael is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mishael a male name?
Yes, 71.4% of people registered as Mishael 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.
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.