Michaelis
surname · English · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Michaelis is a surname, most frequently recorded in Germany. In Uganda it is the 3rd most common surname. It appears chiefly in English and German, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: Patronymic from Latin genitive Michaelis/Michaeli; demonstrates genitive -is/-i alternation.
- UGUganda1 in 158◐
- DEGermany1 in 7.5K
- USUnited States1 in 103K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈3.7K ●
- Sources
- 257 ●
- 1 in 103K ◐
across 12 countries
46K records
Official registry-verified
United States
Meaning & origin●
Patronymic from Latin genitive Michaelis/Michaeli; demonstrates genitive -is/-i alternation.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #603 | 14,770 | 13K rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 149 |
| US United States | — | 3,222 | 24K rec. | 1 in 103K | 3.2K | Michaelis | 257 |
| UG Uganda | #3 | 2,946 | 2.9K rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 2 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 977 | 885 rec. | — | listed | Michaelis | 57 |
| CA Canada | — | 787 | 750 rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 54 |
| AU Australia | — | 727 | 684 rec. | — | 1 | Michaelis | 63 |
| MX Mexico | — | 236 | 193 rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 27 |
| CO Colombia | — | 128 | 109 rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 14 |
| IT Italy | — | 115 | 133 rec. | — | listed | Michaelis | 7 |
| BR Brazil | — | 110 | 0 rec. | 1 in 1.9M | 110 | — | 1 |
| ZA South Africa | — | 98 | 124 rec. | — | — | Michaelis | 7 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 81△ | 40 rec. | 1 in 104K | 81 | Michaelis | 16 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English30K55%
- German17K31%
- Spanish1.7K3%
- French1.2K2%
- 8322%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 29,829 | 55% |
| German | 16,636 | 31% |
| Spanish | 1,735 | 3% |
| French | 1,186 | 2% |
| 832 | 2% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Michaelis is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Patronym from Michael; Latin genitive -is (humanist surname). Bearer count: 4813 tokens.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
Latinized patronymic from the personal name Michael.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, Patronymischer Familienname zu Michael; lat. Genitiv -is. Belegt mit starker/abgeschwächter Form und -sen-Weiterbildung; hohe Konzentrationen u. a. in Sonneberg, Cuxhaven, Soltau, Rotenburg/Wümme, Hamburg.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In German, Latinisierte Familiennamenform zu Michael; morphologische Transposition. Bearer count: 4813.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In German, from the feast day of St. Michael
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Over time●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1891 | 13 |
| 1901 | 18 |
| 1911 | 26 |
| 1921 | 11 |
| 1931 | 8 |
| 1941 | 13 |
| 1951 | 18 |
| 1961 | 37 |
| 1971 | 13 |
| 1981 | 13 |
| 1991 | 29 |
FR INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) — 11 years between 1891–1991. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- Johann David Michaelisb. 1717DEGerman academic (1717–1791)
- Caroline Schellingb. 1763DEnot in their usual nameGerman writer and translator (1763 – 1809)
- Adolf Michaelisb. 1835DEGerman classical archaeologist (1835–1910)
- Georg Michaelisb. 1857PLGerman civil servant and chancellor (1857-1936)
- William Michaelisb. 1871DEGerman admiral (1871-1948)
- Leonor Michaelisb. 1875DEGerman biochemist (1875–1949)
- John H. Michaelisb. 1912USUnited States general
- Hanny Michaelisb. 1922NLDutch poet and translator (1922–2007)
- Andreas Michaelisb. 1959DEGerman diplomat
- Torsten Michaelisb. 1961DEGerman actor and dub actor (1961–2025)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence●
Attested in 32 sources across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3.2K | #10,006 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 3.1K | #9,911 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 3.1K | #9,597 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 110 | #58,969 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 81 | — |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 81 | #12,967 |
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 81 | #18,290 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 81 | #35,446 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 68 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 68 | #39,870 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 37 | — |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 30 | #35,368 |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 44 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Michaelis?
- We estimate roughly 3.7 thousand people bear Michaelis (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.
- In which country does Michaelis have the most bearers?
- Michaelis is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled michaelis.
- How common is Michaelis compared with other names?
- In Germany, Michaelis is the 603rd most common surname of 734,811 surnames recorded there.
- What does the name Michaelis mean?
- Recorded meaning: Patronymic from Latin genitive Michaelis/Michaeli; demonstrates genitive -is/-i alternation.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/michaelisThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Michaelis” — the 603rd most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.