Michal
Masculine · “who is like God?”
Michal is given to both — 3,782 boys and 4,031 girls since 1880. See Michal as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Michal is the Czech, Polish and Slovak form of Michael, and it is also, separately, a woman's name in the Hebrew Bible — Saul's daughter, David's first wife. The two are spelled identically in English and are entirely different names. The Slavic men's name is the one behind the American record, which peaks in 1956.
How old is the name Michal?
Michal first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Michal alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 3,200 people named Michal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Michal most popular?
Michal peaked in 1956, reaching #897 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 4,964 places below that high. See the whole 1956 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Michal
The story of Michal
Michael's cult was enormous in the Byzantine world and spread west with it; Slavic languages received the name early and produced Michal in Czech, Polish and Slovak, Mykhailo in Ukrainian, Mihail in Romanian. Michal is one of the most common men's names in the Czech Republic and Poland. American records show it in Polish- and Czech-settled areas of the industrial Midwest and the north-east, and its 1956 peak reflects the American-born generation of those communities rather than new arrivals. The Hebrew feminine Michal, quite separate, is a common name in modern Israel.
Meaning
who is like God?
Hebrew Mikha'el is a question, not a statement: mi, 'who', kha, 'like', el, 'God'. It is rhetorical, and the expected answer is nobody. Michael is the archangel who leads the heavenly host in Daniel and Revelation, and the name has been among the most used in the Christian world for fifteen hundred years. The Slavic forms drop the final syllable. The unrelated biblical woman Michal has a name of uncertain derivation, possibly a shortened form of the same question or possibly from a different root entirely.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michael
- Michal
Related forms: Michal · Michal · Mykhailo · Mikhail · Mihaly
Pronouncing Michal
MEE-khahl
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ch said as a hard aspirated sound in Polish and Czech — closer to the ch of loch than to a k. English speakers usually say MY-kul, treating it as Michael, or MEE-shel, treating it as Michelle. The Slavic saying is neither.
Nicknames for Michal
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 195669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #897reached in 1956
- Change vs 2023
- +200.0%15 in 2025, from 5
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.
Michal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michal in Czech — same name
- Michal in Polish — same name
- Mykhailo in Ukrainian — related form
- Mikhail in Russian — related form
- Mihaly in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois, New York.
Michals among us
people named Michal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Michal
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Michal
- #5861
- Michal on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Michal went to 15 boys in 2025, but Mychal is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,953 places above the chart.
- Michal15
- Mychal5
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Michal 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 Gennaro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Michal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gennaro climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gennaro's path sketches the road Michal is walking now.
Michal 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
Michal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Michal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and shared with one of the most widely borne names in the world.
- Mike and Misha are both available as short forms in different traditions.
- The spelling is short and needs no accents in American systems.
- It is very often read as Michelle or as a misspelling of Michael.
- The Slavic ch has no English equivalent and gets flattened.
- The identical Hebrew name is feminine, which occasionally causes confusion.
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What they receive
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Michal
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Michals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Michal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Michal?
- Michal is the most-used spelling in US records — 15 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mychal.
- How popular is the name Michal in 2025?
- Michal ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Michal?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Michal — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Michal with classmates?
- Michal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Michal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Michal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Michal and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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