Michal

given name · Czech · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Michal is a given name, most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is the 21st most common given name. It appears chiefly in Czech and Polish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: A name of Hebrew origin meaning 'Who is like God?'.

rarermore common
  • CUCuba1 in 12◐
  • CZCzechia1 in 43
  • FIFinland1 in 52

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈6.3M ●

across 12 countries

#9 ●

of 16M given names

10 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
656 ●

65M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 43 ◐

Czechia

Spellings & scripts●

MichaelLatin · English●45M records
МихаилCyrillic · Russian●13M records
מיכאלHebrew · Hebrew●444K records
ᲛიხეილGeorgian · Georgian●55K records
ไมเคิลThai · Thai●3.1K records
ΜιχαήλGreek · Greek●155 records
মাইকেলBengali · Bangla●143 records
미카엘Hangul · Korean●27 records
ՄիխայիլArmenian · Armenian●6 records
ମାଇକେଲOdia · Odia●0 records

10 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Michael in US United States, GB United Kingdom, DE Germany and 15 more, Михаил in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, TR Türkiye, Mikael in FI Finland, SE Sweden and Михайло in UA Ukraine.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

A name of Hebrew origin meaning 'Who is like God?' or 'Brook'; it implies strength and connection to the divine.

Sources 1

  • Biblical Names Compiled Database

Attested across 21 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Michal is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
RU Russia#2113,284,4114.2M rec.—#8Михаил244
UA Ukraine#234,587,4624.6M rec.—listedМихайло117
US United States#33,469,43443M rec.1 in 963.5MMichael656
GB United Kingdom#42,842,1172.4M rec.—626Michael373
DE Germany#31,639,8761.5M rec.—6Michael363
AU Australia#21,532,8441.1M rec.—121Michael379
CU Cuba#61,016,44718K rec.——Michael36
CA Canada#2934,497863K rec.—58Michael323
FR France#17820,6151.1M rec.1 in 83821KMickael416
PH Philippines#6816,562582K rec.—listedMichael220
BR Brazil#363715,241△123K rec.1 in 296715KMichael208
PL Poland#9492,326△208K rec.1 in 78492KMichał254

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Czech1.2M80%
  • Polish100K7%
  • English79K5%
  • Slovak30K2%
  • 11K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Czech1,194,63480%
Polish100,3497%
English78,8955%
Slovak29,9312%
11,2861%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Michal is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English given name107K records spelled Michal12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland

    Languages: English, Western Frisian

    Also written Mi-Chal, Mi'Chal, Mich-Al, Micha'L, Michâl

  • French given name28K records spelled Michal14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Brazil, Spain

    Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Mïçhãl, Míchal, Michâl, Miçhal, Michaĺ

  • Norwegian Bokmål given name17K records spelled Michal7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United States

    Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Danish, Icelandic

    Also written Mïchal, Míchal

  • a separate given name16K records spelled Michal5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, Israel, United Kingdom

    Also written Michàl, Michäl, Míchal, Michál

  • German given name14K records spelled Michal3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, Austria, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Míchal, Michal︠

  • Hebrew given name8.9K records spelled Michal10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Morocco

    Languages: Hebrew, English, German

    Also written מיכל, Mikhal, Michl, Michał, Michál

  • Hindi given name3.3K records spelled Michal5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, United Kingdom, Israel

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Mîčhál, Míchal, Michãl

74 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Michal 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.

  • Michal is often interpreted as a tragic figure caught between loyalty to her father's house and her husband. Her childlessness is viewed theologically as the end of the Saulide dynasty's legitimacy or as divine judgment for despising the worship of Yahweh.

    as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database

  • In French, Biblical/Slavic form of Michael; 'Who is like God?'.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

  • Biblical name (meaning ‘brook’ in Hebrew) borne by a daughter of Saul who married King David. It is probably through confusion with this name that Michael has occasionally been used as a girl’s name in the English-speaking world.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

  • In English, A daughter of Saul and wife of David in the Old Testament.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Swedish, Michal är en polsk och tjeckisk form av → Mikael.

    as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

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●

025507510019201940196019802000202090 · 1985

Show as table
Michal in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1911–2025
Yearrecords
19115
19127
19135
191410
19156
19166
19178
191812
191910
19209
19237
19245
19257
19278
19288
19385
19395
19409
194114
194281
194363
194426
194530
194637
194745
194839
194958
195041
195146
195259
195352
195466
195559
195669
195764
195854
195968
196052
196171
196238
196341
196436
196545
196648
196741
196851
196945
197044
197134
197256
197341
197452
197553
197685
197762
197862
197968
198059
198172
198257
198369
198474
198590
198657
198764
198882
198961
199069
199159
199267
199363
199474
199560
199673
199765
199873
199963
200069
200158
200257
200359
200465
200560
200663
200757
200857
200948
201051
201160
201237
201335
201443
201538
201654
201749
201836
201931
202037
202131
202241
202342
202444
202533

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 103 years between 1911–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

16001700180019002000Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, b. 1640Michał Jerzy Poniatowski, b. 1736Casimir Pulaski, b. 1745Michał Rola-Żymierski, b. 1890Bogdan Borusewicz, b. 1949Michał Żebrowski, b. 1972Michal Kadlec, b. 1984Michał Pazdan, b. 1987Michał Skóraś, b. 2000

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 88 sources across 43 countries.

Official registers attesting Michal
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—247K#15
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—123K#17
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—6.8K#537
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20206.2K#2,419
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20204.1K#2,419
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—2.5K#956
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)20252.3K—
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—2.1K#1,034
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20201.2K—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—1.1K#307
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20)2026890#515
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000878#26,191

Reference works 5

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name 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 · 748 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Michal?
We estimate roughly 6.3 million people bear Michal (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.
In which country does Michal have the most bearers?
Michal is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled михаил.
How common is Michal compared with other names?
In Russia, Michal is the 21st most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.
Is Michal a male or female name?
Michal is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Michal mean?
Recorded meaning: A name of Hebrew origin meaning 'Who is like God?'
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/michal

The 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

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

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, “Michal” — the 21st most common given name in Russia. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Michal parses inside a full name →