Michel
Feminine · “Hebrew mi kael”
Michel is given to both — 3,555 girls and 10,539 boys since 1880. See Michel as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Michael is not a person's name in origin. He is an archangel, and the English legal and academic year still has a term named after him: Michaelmas, the twenty-ninth of September, one of the four quarter days on which rents fell due.
How old is the name Michel?
Michel first appears in US birth records in 1939 — 86 years ago. The typical Michel alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 3,300 people named Michel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Michel most popular?
Michel peaked in 1966, reaching #1119 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 8,988 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikael to Michel
The story of Michel
Michael appears in Daniel and Revelation as the archangel who commands the heavenly armies, and the -el at the end of his name, and of Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, is the word for God. His feast on 29 September became one of the four English quarter days, when rents were paid, servants hired and accounts settled, and the term survives in the university and legal calendars of England, where the autumn term is still Michaelmas. The daisy that flowers at the end of September is a Michaelmas daisy for the same reason. A name that belongs to no human being at all thus ended up organizing the English financial year, and, through the French Michel and Michelle, supplying one of the most common given names of the twentieth century.
Meaning
Hebrew mi kael, who is like God
Michel is the French form of Michael, from Hebrew Mikael, a rhetorical question meaning who is like God. In French it is male; in American records the same spelling appears as a female name, usually as a shortened Michelle. The female peak of this spelling is 1966.
How the name formed
- Mikael
- Michael
- Michel
Related forms: Michel · Michele · Michelle
Pronouncing Michel
mee-SHEL
Two syllables, stress on the second. The English Michael is MY-kul; the French and English forms of the same name share almost no sounds.
Nicknames for Michel
Moderate
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
- 1939
- Most girls named
- 196689 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1119reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- −18.2%9 in 2025, from 11
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.
Michel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michel in French — same name
- Michele in French — same name
- Michelle in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Michels among us
people named Michel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Michel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Michel
- #10107
- Michel on the 2025 chart
- #944
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Michel went to 9 girls in 2025, but Michell is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 16, which makes it the 944th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,163 places above the chart.
- Michel9
- Michell7
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Michel 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 Marline test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Michel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marline climbed just as high around 1935, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marline's path sketches the road Michel is walking now.
Michel 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
Michel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Michel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mitch and Shell are two short forms in different registers.
- The name is documented across three religions.
- Two syllables with the weight at the end.
- In French this spelling is male and Michele is the female form.
- Michelle is the standard American spelling.
- The 1966 peak dates the female use of this spelling.
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What they receive
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Michel
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Michels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Michel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Michel?
- Michel is the most-used spelling in US records — 9 of the 16 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Michell.
- How popular is the name Michel in 2025?
- Michel ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Michel?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Michel — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Michel with classmates?
- Michel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Michel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Michel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Michel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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