Michal
Michal reached its high-water mark in 1985 at number 1,410, and has been recorded 7,813 times in all. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 4,265th. About 6,900 Michals are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 37.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Michal boys named Michal
Girls and boys called Michal
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Michal crossed from boys to girls in 2010, having already crossed in 1951, 1973 and 2005, and has stayed there for 16 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 89% girls, and in 2025 it was 69%.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 84 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 7,813
- Estimated living today
- 6,900
- Median age today
- 37
- Peak year
- 1985
- Best rank
- 1,410th
- Rank in 2025
- 4,265th
- First recorded
- 1911
- Girls / boys
- 4,031 / 3,782
How old the living Michals are
born that year still alive today
Of the 7,813 babies given the name since 1911, about 6,900 are alive — 88 in every hundred. Roughly 1,200 of them are children and 1,100 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1988 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Hebrew
From Hebrew מִיכַל (“Michal”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Michals
- Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1640–1673)King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania
- Michal Kadlec (born 1984)Czech association football player
- Michal Kováč (1930–2016)Slovak economist, politician, president of the Slovakia
- Michał Żewłakow (born 1976)Polish association football player
- Michal Sadílek (born 1999)Czech association football player
- Michał Kwiatkowski (born 1990)Polish road racing cyclist
- Michał Skóraś (born 2000)Polish association football player
- Michał Szpak (born 1990)Polish singer
People named Michal with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Michal is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Michal is most concentrated in New York (5.1×), Illinois (3.9×), New Jersey (3.2×), California (1.8×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1985
The most popular girls’ names the year Michal peaked:
Michal elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland boys | Michał +1 spelling | 144,709 birth registrations | 4th |
| Norway boys | Michal | 2,046 | 58th |
| England and Wales boys | Michal | 1,565 | 298th |
| Ireland boys | Michal | 361 | 149th |
| England and Wales girls | Michal | 197 | 2,150th |
| Scotland boys | Michal | 142 | 245th |
| France boys | Michal | 110 | 2,333rd |
| Northern Ireland boys | Michal | 60 | 191st |
| Belgium boys | Michal | 54 | 811th |
| France girls | Michal | 5 | 6,936th |
| Poland girls | Michal | 5 birth registrations | 463rd |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Michal: rank by region
In 2004, Michal was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallonia | Michal | 427 | 5 |
In 2025, Michal was given 2 times or more in 16 regions of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolnośląskie | Michał | 21 | 118 |
| Kujawsko-Pomorskie | Michał | 23 | 88 |
| Lubelskie | Michał | 24 | 91 |
| Lubuskie | Michał | 19 | 43 |
| Łódzkie | Michał | 30 | 63 |
| Małopolskie | Michał | 22 | 213 |
| Mazowieckie | Michał | 26 | 240 |
| Opolskie | Michał | 16 | 48 |
| Podkarpackie | Michał | 18 | 125 |
| Podlaskie | Michał | 20 | 65 |
| Pomorskie | Michał | 22 | 109 |
| Śląskie | Michał | 25 | 162 |
| Świętokrzyskie | Michał | 26 | 41 |
| Warmińsko-Mazurskie | Michał | 28 | 43 |
| Wielkopolskie | Michał | 26 | 141 |
| Zachodniopomorskie | Michał | 21 | 62 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Michal by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 2 | 584th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Michal among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Michal | 28 | 47 |
| Finland girls | Michal | 14 | 16 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Michal lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 445 men called Michal were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Michal | 51 | 0.096 | 928 |
| Palmas, Las | Michal | 36 | 0.062 | 1,334 |
| Balears, Illes | Michal | 35 | 0.056 | 1,087 |
| Huesca | Michal | 5 | 0.043 | 1,362 |
| Alicante/Alacant | Michal | 40 | 0.040 | 1,592 |
| Málaga | Michal | 31 | 0.035 | 1,419 |
Listed in 19 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 33 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Michal against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.