Mikal
A masculine name derived from the Hebrew name Michael, meaning "who is like God?"
Name Census estimates that about 3,717 living Americans carry the first name Mikal. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Mikal today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mikal births was 1993 (180 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mikal. 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 Mikal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 92,213 Americans
Peak year
1993
180 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,644
Tracked since 1943
Census
Mikal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,189 people with the first name Mikal, which placed it at #5,398 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
#5,398
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,189 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mikal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikal is Black at 42.9%. The next largest groups are White (39.2%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Mikal 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 Mikal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.9% · 1,368
- White39.2% · 1,249
- Hispanic or Latino8.7% · 279
- Two or more races7.0% · 223
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Mikal
Mikal leans heavily male at 84.8% of total registrations, but 591 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mikal as a male name
- Ranked #4,644 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (158 births)
Mikal as a female name
- Ranked #11,787 in 2020
- 8 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1975 (33 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mikal on both sides of the split. Of the 3,195 people counted with this name, 2,542 were male (79.6%) and 653 were female (20.4%).
Popularity
Mikal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mikal from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,235 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
Mikal 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 Mikal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Pennsylvania, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Mikal, while Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mikal
The name Mikal has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a variant spelling of the biblical name Michael, which is derived from the Hebrew words "mi" meaning "who" and "ka-el" meaning "like God." The name essentially translates to "who is like God?"
In the Old Testament, Michael is the name of an archangel, one of the principal angels in the Jewish faith. He is mentioned in the Book of Daniel as the protector of Israel and is also regarded as the leader of the heavenly armies against Satan and his forces.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mikal can be found in the First Book of Samuel, where it is the name of King Saul's younger daughter and the wife of David. This Mikal played a significant role in the biblical narrative, helping David escape from her father's wrath.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Mikal or its various spellings. One of the most famous was Mikal the Elder, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher and scholar from Spain, known for his commentary on the Torah and his work on Jewish law.
Another prominent figure was Mikal Singh Bedwa, an 18th-century Rajput warrior and ruler of the Bedwa clan in present-day Rajasthan, India. He was known for his valor and military prowess in battles against the Mughal Empire.
In the realm of literature, Mikal Gilmore was a notable American writer and journalist born in 1946. He is best known for his critically acclaimed biography of Gary Gilmore, his cousin, titled "Shot in the Heart."
Mikal Muharremović, born in 1952, was a Bosnian writer and journalist who wrote extensively about the Bosnian War and the siege of Sarajevo, where he lived during the conflict.
Lastly, Mikal Kirchner, born in 1957, is a renowned American film and television director, known for his work on shows like "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared."
These are just a few examples of the rich history and diverse cultural significance associated with the name Mikal throughout the ages.
People
Mikal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mikal 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
Mikal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mikal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,717 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mikal 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 92,213 US residents.
Is Mikal a common name?
We classify Mikal as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,894 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mikal most popular?
The single biggest year for Mikal was 1993, when 180 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mikal is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mikal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,189 people with the name Mikal, or 1.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,398 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 Mikal 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 Mikal?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mikal on both sides of the split. Of the 3,195 people counted with this name, 2,542 were male (79.6%) and 653 were female (20.4%). 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 Mikal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikal is Black at 42.9%. The next largest groups are White (39.2%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Mikal most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mikal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.9% (1,368 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 Mikal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mikal a male name?
Yes, 84.8% of people registered as Mikal 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 Mikal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mikal 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 Mikal 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 are named Mikal?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.