Missael
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "who is as God is".
Name Census estimates that about 521 living Americans carry the first name Missael. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Missael today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Missael births was 1996 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Missael. 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
521
~ 1 in 657,878 Americans
Peak year
1996
36 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,342
Tracked since 1986
Census
Missael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 651 people with the first name Missael, which placed it at #17,102 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
#17,102
National first-name rank
People counted
651
651 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
98.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Missael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Missael is Hispanic at 98.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Black (0.5%). 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 Missael 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 Missael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino98.3% · 640
- White1.2% · 8
- Black or African American0.5% · 3
Popularity
Missael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Missael from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 180 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Missael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Missael 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 Missael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Missaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Missael, while Illinois, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Missael
The name Missael has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a variant spelling of the name Mishael, which itself derives from the Hebrew words "mi" meaning "who" and "el" meaning "God." The name can be interpreted to mean "who is what God is" or "who is like God."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Missael is found in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. In this text, Mishael is the name given to one of the four young men taken captive from Judah and brought to the court of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. This biblical figure, also known as Meshach, is remembered for his unwavering faith and resistance to idol worship.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who have borne the name Missael or its variants. One of the earliest recorded was Missael Gualtero, an Italian Catholic prelate who lived in the 13th century and served as the Bishop of Avellino from 1291 to 1301.
In the 16th century, Missael Pasha was a prominent Ottoman statesman and military commander who served as the Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) of the Ottoman Navy from 1565 to 1567.
In the 19th century, Missael Patrick Delisle Hayden was a French-Canadian Catholic priest and missionary who lived from 1824 to 1900. He is known for his work among the Ojibwe people in the Great Lakes region of North America.
Another notable bearer of the name was Missael Pastrana Borrero, a Colombian politician and lawyer who served as the President of Colombia from 1970 to 1974. He was born in 1923 and passed away in 1997.
More recently, Missael Rodríguez Olarte was a Mexican Roman Catholic bishop who lived from 1928 to 2010. He served as the Bishop of Cuernavaca from 1977 to 2004.
While the name Missael has its roots in ancient Hebrew culture, it has been embraced by various other cultures and communities throughout history, with each bearer contributing to the rich tapestry of this unique and meaningful name.
People
Missael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Missael 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
Missael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Missael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 521 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Missael 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 657,878 US residents.
Is Missael a common name?
We classify Missael as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 528 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Missael most popular?
The single biggest year for Missael was 1996, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Missael is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Missael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 651 people with the name Missael, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,102 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 Missael 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 Missael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Missael leans strongly male. 653 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 7 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Missael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Missael is Hispanic at 98.3%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Black (0.5%). 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 Missael most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Missael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.3% (640 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 Missael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Missael a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Missael 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 Missael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Missael 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 Missael 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 Missael?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.