Michel: meaning “who is like God?”, origin & popularity

Meaning & origin

What it means

Michel is a variant of Michael. One Hebrew interpretation is “who is like God?.”

Explained through its name family

Where it comes from

Michel is a variant of Michael. An origin associated with Michael is Hebrew.

Explained through its name family

How it developed

From French Michel, from Old French Michel, from Latin Michāēl, from Koine Greek Μῐχᾱήλ, from Biblical Hebrew מִיכָאֵל (mīḵāʾēl, “who is like God?”), built from Biblical Hebrew מִי (mí, “who”) + כַּ־ (ka-, “like”) + אֵל (él, “God”).

Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Michel through the years

Babies since 1880: 14,094; 10,539 boys · 3,555 girls
Most popular year: 1957; 325 babies
2025: 31; #4,642 for boys · #10,637 for girls
2021–25 vs 2016–20: +9%; Steady

Boys Girls

Michel in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1880–2025, per million births of each sex. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

Boys, girls and both

The balance of boys and girls given this name has shifted over time. Recent births are 76% boys.

Boys Girls

Five-year rolling share of U.S. births. Blank stretches had too few births to read.

By the numbers

In 2025, this name appeared in 22 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 4,642 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 0.8% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 284 in 1957. It also appeared in 9 birth records for girls in 2025. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 19,539 as a first name in 2020; 25,704 as a surname in 2020.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Michel’s family of names

In French usage, Michel has a diminutive in Mike. Michel shares a linguistic root with Michael. In French usage, Michel has a conventional equivalent in the Spanish form Miguel.

Walk Michel’s family in the name graph

Around the world

Michel has relatives in 55 languages.

95 related names in 55 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.

Each dot marks where a language is rooted, not where people with the name live today. Bigger dots hold more names. Dots on the border stand for languages further away. Language locations from Glottolog (CC BY 4.0); map from Natural Earth.

Nicknames & forms 32

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Show 24 moreShow fewer

Spellings & scripts 8

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

Across languages 79

Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.

Show 52 moreShow fewer

And 19 more.

People named Michel

Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.

Similar names

If you love Michel, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Biblical

Sibling ideas

Names that share Michel’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Michel

A sister for Michel

Your shortlist

Michel