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Michelle vs Mychelle

American parents have registered 819,760 Michelles since 1880, against 656 Mychelles. Michelle is still ahead, with 661 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Michelle against Mychelle, 1880 to 2025 0 10k 20k 30k 40k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Michelle Mychelle

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

Michelle has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Michelle had 923 and Mychelle had 6.

Side by side

  Michelle Mychelle
Total US births 819,760656
Most in one year 34,45734
Babies in 2025 661under 5
Estimated living today 764,000630
Median age today 5033
Peak year 19691992
Best rank 2nd girls3,267th girls
Rank in 2025 465thunranked
First recorded 19151960
Girls / boys 816,510 / 3,250656 / 0

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 Michelles alive today are over 50; half the Mychelles are over 33. That is 17 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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