Micaela
Feminine · “Who is like God?”
Micaela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 14,977 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Micaela is the Spanish and Italian answer to Michael, a name that began as a question in Hebrew and has been asked in every European language since. Bizet gave it to the gentle village girl in Carmen in the 1870s, spelling it Micaëla, and opera houses have been singing it ever since. Four syllables that open wide and land softly, with the stress falling in a different place depending on which language is saying it.
How old is the name Micaela?
Micaela first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Micaela alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 14,000 people named Micaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Micaela most popular?
Micaela peaked in 1995, reaching #439 nationally. Today it ranks #1285, 846 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Micaela
The story of Micaela
The root is the Hebrew Mikha'el, borne in scripture by the archangel and carried into Greek and Latin as Michael, from which nearly every European form descends. Spanish turned the masculine into Miguel and built the feminine Micaela directly on the Latin spelling, while Italian arrived at Michela and Michele by a parallel road. The form traveled widely through the Spanish-speaking world, including colonial Latin America, and reached the United States along the same routes — which is why it has always been most at home in states with deep Spanish-speaking histories. Bizet's Carmen, set in Seville, put the spelling Micaëla in front of French and international audiences from the 1870s onward.
Meaning
Who is like God?
The Hebrew name Mikha'el is a rhetorical question, not a statement — the expected answer is 'no one'. Micaela is its feminine form by way of Spanish.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michaēl
- Michael
- Miguel
- Micaela
Related forms: Michela · Michaela · Mihaela · Michelle · Mikaela · Michalina
Pronouncing Micaela
mee-kah-EH-lah
That is the Spanish reading, with four clear syllables. In English it is usually said mih-KAY-luh, matching Michaela. Both are correct for the same spelling, so it is worth deciding early which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Micaela
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 1995585 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #439reached in 1995
- Change vs 2023
- −26.6%174 in 2025, from 237
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Micaela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michela in Italian — same name
- Michaela in German, Czech — spelling variant
- Mihaela in Romanian — same name
- Michelle in French — related form
- Mikaela in Swedish, Finnish — spelling variant
- Michalina in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Micaelas among us
people named Micaela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,237 born in 2025 was named Micaela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Micaela
- #1285
- Micaela on the 2025 chart
- #558
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Micaela went to 174 girls in 2025, but Mikaela, Mikaella and Micaella are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 441, which makes it the 558th most-given girls’ name of the year — 727 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,645 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,237 for Micaela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Barb test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Micaela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Barb climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Barb's path sketches the road Micaela is walking now.
Micaela sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Micaela is headed
Micaela should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Micaela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Micaela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling that works in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese without translation, and stays recognizable in each.
- A documented line back to the Hebrew Mikha'el, giving it one of the longest unbroken records of any name in use.
- Several established short forms already in circulation — Mica, Mikki, Ela — so nothing has to be invented.
- On US records for well over a century, so it is familiar to the ear without being a name most classrooms will hold twice.
- It competes with Michaela, Mikaela, Makayla and Mikayla, all of which sound close or identical in English. Expect to spell it aloud often, and expect mail addressed to the other versions.
- The Spanish and English pronunciations differ genuinely — mee-kah-EH-lah versus mih-KAY-luh. In a bilingual family that is a feature; elsewhere it means she will be introducing herself twice.
- It is easing back from its high point rather than rising, so it currently reads as a name well represented among adults. Names in that phase tend to sound settled rather than trendy.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Micaela to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Micaela
Feminine · #1285 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Micaelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,000 people named Micaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Micaela?
- Micaela is one of 4 recorded spellings. Mikaela is the more common one — 241 births in 2025 against 174 for Micaela.
- How popular is the name Micaela in 2025?
- Micaela ranks #1285 among US girl names in 2025, with 174 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Micaela?
- About 1 in every 9,237 US girls born in 2025 was named Micaela — 174 in all.
- Will my child share the name Micaela with classmates?
- Micaela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Micaela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zinnia#1285 · Ryann#1285 · Rita#1285 · Carmella#1285 · Zahara#1285 · Lorena#1291 · Leela#1279 · Antonia#1279
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Micaela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Micaela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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