Humanverse

Michaela vs Michle

American parents have registered 53,702 Michaelas since 1880, against 8 Michles. Michaela is still ahead, with 323 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Michaela against Michle, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Michaela Michle

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Michaela has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1921 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1952, when Michaela had 75 and Michle had 8.

Side by side

  Michaela Michle
Total US births 53,7028
Most in one year 3,4058
Babies in 2025 323under 5
Estimated living today 52,0005
Median age today 2773
Peak year 19971952
Best rank 100th girls2,875th boys
Rank in 2025 841stunranked
First recorded 19211952
Girls / boys 53,633 / 690 / 8

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Michles alive today are over 73; half the Michaelas are over 27. That is 46 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Michaela Michle
England and Wales 3,7633

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Michaela and Michle.