Mike
Masculine · “who is like God?”
Mike is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 205,861 boys against 662 girls since 1880. See Mike as a girl name
Mike has been registered as a name in its own right for as long as American records have existed, not merely as a short form of the much longer one behind it. It is also the word for the letter M in the radio alphabet, and that alphabet was assembled by experiment.
How old is the name Mike?
Mike was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mike alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 136,000 people named Mike are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mike most popular?
Mike peaked in 1960, reaching #36 nationally. Today it ranks #1231, 1,195 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Mike appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Mike
The story of Mike
The NATO phonetic alphabet was not made up by somebody with a taste for words. It was tested. Researchers ran candidate words through deliberately degraded radio channels, with listeners from several countries and a range of accents, and kept the ones that survived noise and unfamiliar pronunciation; earlier alphabets had been designed for English speakers alone and fell apart in international use. Several words were changed after field trials — Nectar became November, Extra became X-ray, Delta caused problems in some regions and was kept anyway. The final set has one word per letter, most of them recognizable across the major European languages, and it has been in use essentially unchanged since the nineteen-fifties by aviation, shipping, the military and anybody reading a booking reference down a bad phone line.
Meaning
who is like God?
The formal name is a Hebrew rhetorical question built from three words: who, like, and a form of the divine name. The implied answer is nobody, which is why it belongs to an archangel and why the name is a challenge rather than a description.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michael
- Mike
Pronouncing Mike
MYKE
One syllable. The silent e marks the vowel as long, which is the ordinary English rule and needs no explaining.
Nicknames for Mike
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 196012,045 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #36reached in 1960
- Change vs 2022
- −22.7%163 in 2025, from 211
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.
Mike in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Mikes among us
people named Mike are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,479 born in 2025 was named Mike
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 Norman test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mike's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Norman climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Norman's path sketches the road Mike is walking now.
Mike 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 Mike is headed
Mike should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Mike beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mike in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is understood instantly by everybody and needs no introduction anywhere.
- One syllable is quick, clear and hard to mishear across a room.
- The formal name stands behind it for occasions that want one.
- It reads as a short form even when it is the registered name.
- It is strongly associated with particular mid-century decades.
- It is also the ordinary word for a microphone, which readers will notice.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Mike
Masculine · #1231 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mikes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 136,000 people named Mike are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mike in 2025?
- Mike ranks #1231 among US boy names in 2025, with 163 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mike?
- About 1 in every 10,479 US boys born in 2025 was named Mike — 163 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mike with classmates?
- Mike will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mike
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mattias#1231 · Kendall#1231 · Ahmir#1231 · Westen#1235 · Natanael#1227 · Yasin#1235 · Viktor#1235 · Demetrius#1227
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mike? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mike 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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