Michele
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like God?"
Name Census estimates that about 184,892 living Americans carry the first name Michele. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Michele today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Michele births was 1968 (11,281 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Michele. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Michele with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Michele is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,763 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Michele have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
185K
~ 1 in 1,854 Americans
Peak year
1968
11,281 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2023 SSA rank
#4,156
Tracked since 1905
Census
Michele in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 199,114 people with the first name Michele, which placed it at #277 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#277
National first-name rank
People counted
199K
199,114 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
65.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Michele
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michele is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Hispanic (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Michele described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Michele at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 167,218
- Black or African American6.4% · 12,801
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 10,271
- Two or more races2.7% · 5,345
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 2,651
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 828
Gender
Gender distribution for Michele
Michele leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 2,763 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Michele as a male name
- Ranked #8,688 in 2023
- 9 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1969 (85 births)
Michele as a female name
- Ranked #4,156 in 2024
- 35 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1968 (11,219 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Michele leans strongly female. 196,261 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 2,853 male bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Michele: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Michele from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 87,528 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Michele by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Michele during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Micheles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Michele, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,350 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Michele
The name Michele has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, derived from the name Michael, which means "who is like God" or "one who is like God." The name's earliest recorded use dates back to ancient times.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, the name Michael is mentioned as the name of an archangel, one of the principal angels in the Jewish and Christian traditions. This association with a powerful celestial being contributed to the name's popularity and subsequent variations across different languages and cultures.
The name Michele is the Italian and French variant of Michael, reflecting the linguistic evolution and adaptations that occurred as the name spread throughout Europe. It was particularly prevalent in regions with strong Italian and French cultural influences.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Michele can be found in the works of the renowned Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), who mentioned a character named Michele in his literary masterpiece, the Divine Comedy.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Michele. One example is Michele da Cuneo (c. 1495-1564), an Italian painter and architect active during the Renaissance period, known for his frescoes and architectural designs.
Another prominent figure was Michele di Lando (c. 1335-1389), an Italian banker and statesman who served as the Gonfalonier (chief magistrate) of Florence in the late 14th century.
In the realm of science, Michele Ruggeri (1543-1607) was an Italian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the theory of planetary motion.
The name Michele also found its way into the arts, with Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), an Italian painter celebrated for his vedute (view paintings) depicting the cityscapes of Venice.
Another notable bearer of the name was Michele Scuppoli (1617-1693), an Italian Catholic prelate and Bishop of Ripatransone, who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Michele, highlighting its enduring presence and cultural significance across various fields and eras.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Michele
People
Michele + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Michele as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Michele: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Michele?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 184,892 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Michele going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,854 US residents.
Is Michele a common name?
We classify Michele as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 226,031 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Michele most popular?
The single biggest year for Michele was 1968, when 11,281 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Michele is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Michele in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 199,114 people with the name Michele, or 65.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #277 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Michele in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Michele?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Michele leans strongly female. 196,261 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 2,853 male bearers (1.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Michele?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Michele is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Hispanic (5.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Michele most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Michele in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (167,218 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Michele in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Michele a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Michele in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Michele still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Michele in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Michele can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Michele as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Michele, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.