Miguel
A masculine Spanish name derived from the Hebrew name Michael, meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 177,346 living Americans carry the first name Miguel. It sits at #189 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Miguel today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Miguel births was 2007 (4,914 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Miguel. 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 Miguel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Miguel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 996 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
177K
~ 1 in 1,933 Americans
Peak year
2007
4,914 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#189
Tracked since 1880
Census
Miguel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 295,998 people with the first name Miguel, which placed it at #173 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
#173
National first-name rank
People counted
296K
295,998 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
98.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Miguel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miguel is Hispanic at 95.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Miguel 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 Miguel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.2% · 281,699
- White2.3% · 6,723
- Black or African American1.3% · 3,792
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 2,721
- Two or more races0.2% · 628
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 435
Gender
Gender distribution for Miguel
Out of the 189,879 babies given the name Miguel since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Miguel as a male name
- Ranked #189 in 2024
- 1,924 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (4,906 births)
Miguel as a female name
- Ranked #16,795 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1992 (41 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miguel appears almost entirely male. Of the 296,001 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Miguel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Miguel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 46,220 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Miguel 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 Miguel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Miguels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Miguel, while Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,877 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Miguel
The name Miguel is of Spanish origin and derives from the Hebrew name Michael, which means "who is like God?" The name Miguel first emerged during the medieval period in Spain and Portugal. It has roots in the Aramaic name Mikha'el and the Hebrew name Miykah'el.
Miguel was a popular name among early Christians and Jews, as it was the name of the archangel Michael, who is mentioned in the Bible, the Quran, and other religious texts. In the Book of Daniel, Michael is referred to as a protector of Israel. The name was also associated with the military leader Michael the Archangel, who led the army of God against Satan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Miguel in historical records dates back to the 12th century. Miguel Arias, a Spanish nobleman and knight, was born around 1150 and served under King Alfonso VIII of Castile. Another notable figure from this era was Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), the renowned Spanish author best known for his novel Don Quixote.
During the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, the name Miguel became more widespread as Spanish explorers and conquistadors brought it to the Americas. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Miguel López de Legazpi (1502-1572), a Spanish navigator and explorer who led the expedition that established the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
In the realm of art and literature, Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) was a prominent Spanish philosopher, essayist, and novelist who played a significant role in the Spanish literary renaissance. Another well-known figure was Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753-1811), a Mexican Catholic priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.
Other notable individuals with the name Miguel throughout history include Miguel de la Madrid (1934-2012), a Mexican politician who served as the President of Mexico from 1982 to 1988, and Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974), a Guatemalan writer and diplomat who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Miguel
People
Miguel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Miguel 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
Miguel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Miguel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 177,346 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Miguel 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 1,933 US residents.
Is Miguel a common name?
We classify Miguel 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, 189,879 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Miguel most popular?
The single biggest year for Miguel was 2007, when 4,914 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Miguel is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Miguel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 295,998 people with the name Miguel, or 98.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #173 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 Miguel 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 Miguel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miguel appears almost entirely male. Of the 296,001 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Miguel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miguel is Hispanic at 95.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Miguel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Miguel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.2% (281,699 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 Miguel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Miguel a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Miguel in the SSA data are male. 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 Miguel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Miguel 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 Miguel 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 common is the name Miguel?
See how many people have the name Miguel on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.