Mikhail
Masculine · “who is like God?”
Mikhail is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,134 boys against 24 girls since 1880.
Mikhail is the Russian of Michael, and the Hebrew is a question rather than a statement — who is like God? — asked to expect no answer.
How old is the name Mikhail?
Mikhail first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Mikhail alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 4,100 people named Mikhail are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mikhail most popular?
Mikhail peaked in 1990, reaching #949 nationally. Today it ranks #1867, 918 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Mikhail
The story of Mikhail
Michael is the archangel who leads the heavenly host and weighs souls, and one of only three angels named in the Hebrew Bible. Russian took Mikhail, which became one of the country's most-used names — Lermontov, Bulgakov, Gorbachev, Baryshnikov. Emigration brought it to America, where it is in current use.
Meaning
who is like God?
From the Hebrew Mikha'el — mi, 'who', ka, 'like', and El, 'God'. It is a rhetorical question. The archangel Michael uses it as a war cry against Satan in later tradition, which fits the grammar. The Hebrew is ordinary and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michael
- Mikhail
Related forms: Михаил · Michael · Mikail · Michalis
Pronouncing Mikhail
mih-kah-EEL
Three syllables, stress on the third. English Michael is MY-kul with two.
Nicknames for Mikhail
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
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 2015143 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #949reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- +1.2%84 in 2025, from 83
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.
Mikhail in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Михаил in Russian — transliteration
- Michael in English — related form
- Mikail in Arabic — related form
- Michalis in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, New York.
Mikhails among us
people named Mikhail are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 20,334 born in 2025 was named Mikhail
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mikhail
- #1867
- Mikhail on the 2025 chart
- #792
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mikhail went to 84 boys in 2025, but Mikail and Mikayil are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 136, which makes it the 792nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,075 places above the chart.
- Mikhail84
- Mikail47
- Mikayil5
About 1 boy in 12,559 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 20,334 for Mikhail 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 Carmel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mikhail's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carmel climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carmel's path sketches the road Mikhail is walking now.
Mikhail 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 Mikhail is headed
Mikhail 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.
Mikhail beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mikhail in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The name is a rhetorical question, which is a rare and interesting shape.
- One of the three named angels of the Hebrew Bible carries it.
- Misha is a warm and very widely used short form.
- The stress placement differs sharply from the English Michael.
- Mikhail and Michael will be treated as the same name on documents.
- It reads as distinctly Russian.
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Mikhail
Masculine · #1867 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mikhails are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,100 people named Mikhail are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mikhail?
- Mikhail is the most-used spelling in US records — 84 of the 136 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mikail and Mikayil.
- How popular is the name Mikhail in 2025?
- Mikhail ranks #1867 among US boy names in 2025, with 84 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mikhail?
- About 1 in every 20,334 US boys born in 2025 was named Mikhail — 84 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mikhail with classmates?
- Mikhail will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mikhail
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bryar#1867 · Ishan#1867 · Jakhari#1867 · Fidel#1867 · Kasper#1867 · Klay#1867 · Brighton#1867 · Coby#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mikhail? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mikhail and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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