Michelina
Feminine · “who is like God?”
Michael is a question, not a statement. The Hebrew reads who is like God, and it is rhetorical: the expected answer is nobody. Michelina is that question with two Italian diminutive endings stacked on top of it.
How old is the name Michelina?
Michelina first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Michelina alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 1,100 people named Michelina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Michelina most popular?
Michelina peaked in 1917, reaching #964 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,582 places below that high. See the whole 1917 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Michelina
The story of Michelina
Michael is one of only two angels named in the Hebrew Bible and the one who leads the heavenly armies, which made him a patron of soldiers and of high places across Christian Europe; Monte Sant'Angelo in Puglia and Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy are both his. Italian naming built a large family on him, and the diminutive -ina is fully productive, giving Michelina, Angelina, Carolina and Nicolina. Michelina is strongest in the south of Italy, and it reached the United States with the great migration, peaking in 1917 with the American-born daughters of those arrivals.
Meaning
who is like God?
Hebrew Mikha'el, built from mi, who, kha, like, and El, God. The construction is a rhetorical question and belongs to a small group of Hebrew names built the same way. Italian Michele is the masculine, Michela the feminine, and Michelina adds the diminutive -ina, so the name is a small Michela.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michael
- Michela
- Michelina
Related forms: Michelina · Micheline · Micaela · Micaela
Pronouncing Michelina
mee-keh-LEE-nah
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Italian ch is a hard k, so the name never contains an English sh sound; American speakers often say mish-uh-LEE-nuh.
Nicknames for Michelina
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 192152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #964reached in 1917
- Change vs 2023
- −15.0%17 in 2025, from 20
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.
Michelina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michelina in Italian — same name
- Micheline in French — same name
- Micaela in Spanish — related form
- Micaela in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Illinois.
Michelinas among us
people named Michelina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Michelina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dannie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Michelina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dannie climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dannie's path sketches the road Michelina is walking now.
Michelina 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
Michelina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Michelina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Hebrew meaning with an unusual rhetorical structure.
- Lina and Mickey are two short forms in completely different traditions.
- Recognized across Italy, France and the Italian-American world.
- The Italian ch is a k and English speakers will say sh.
- Four syllables will be shortened immediately in American use.
- It is closely tied to the Italian-American generations of the 1910s.
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What they receive
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Michelina
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Michelinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Michelina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Michelina in 2025?
- Michelina ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Michelina?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Michelina — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Michelina with classmates?
- Michelina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Michelina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Michelina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Michelina 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.
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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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