Mikaela
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 20,064 living Americans carry the first name Mikaela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mikaela today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mikaela births was 1997 (1,071 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mikaela. 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 Mikaela with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,083 Americans
Peak year
1997
1,071 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#970
Tracked since 1966
Census
Mikaela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,594 people with the first name Mikaela, which placed it at #1,730 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
#1,730
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
17,594 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mikaela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikaela is White at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.6%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Mikaela 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 Mikaela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.8% · 9,471
- Hispanic or Latino24.6% · 4,334
- Black or African American7.6% · 1,330
- Two or more races7.4% · 1,296
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 1,038
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 125
Popularity
Mikaela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mikaela from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 6,905 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mikaela 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 Mikaela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikaelas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Mikaela, while Wyoming, Delaware, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 367 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mikaela
The name Mikaela has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a feminine form of the male name Michael, which is derived from the Hebrew words "mi" meaning "who" and "el" meaning "God." The name Michael was a common one among the ancient Hebrews and is mentioned in the Bible, such as in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation.
The name Mikaela likely emerged as a variant spelling of the name Michael during the Middle Ages, particularly in regions where the Latin alphabet was used. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mikaela can be found in Swedish church records from the 17th century.
In the 18th century, a notable figure bearing the name Mikaela was Mikaela Callis (1714-1784), a Swedish writer and translator. She was known for her translations of French literature into Swedish.
Another historical figure with the name Mikaela was Mikaela Vilhelmine Henriette Strandvall (1838-1912), a Norwegian author and women's rights activist. She wrote several novels and played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement in Norway.
In the realm of music, Mikaela Mustonen (1876-1957) was a Finnish composer and conductor. She composed orchestral works, chamber music, and vocal pieces, and was also active as a conductor, leading various ensembles in Finland.
The name Mikaela also has a connection to the world of sports. Mikaela Shiffrin (born 1995) is an American World Cup alpine ski racer and two-time Olympic gold medalist. She is considered one of the most successful alpine skiers of all time.
While these are just a few examples, the name Mikaela has been present throughout history in various cultures and contexts, carrying with it the rich heritage of its Hebrew origins and the meaning associated with the name Michael.
People
Mikaela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mikaela 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
Mikaela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mikaela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,064 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mikaela 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 17,083 US residents.
Is Mikaela a common name?
We classify Mikaela as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 20,475 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mikaela most popular?
The single biggest year for Mikaela was 1997, when 1,071 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mikaela is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mikaela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,594 people with the name Mikaela, or 5.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,730 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 Mikaela 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 Mikaela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mikaela appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,596 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Mikaela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikaela is White at 53.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.6%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Mikaela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mikaela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.8% (9,471 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 Mikaela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mikaela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mikaela 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 Mikaela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mikaela 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 Mikaela 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 Mikaela?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.