Mikhaila
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 511 living Americans carry the first name Mikhaila. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mikhaila today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mikhaila births was 1996 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mikhaila. 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 Mikhaila with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
511
~ 1 in 670,752 Americans
Peak year
1996
35 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,764
Tracked since 1984
Census
Mikhaila in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 483 people with the first name Mikhaila, which placed it at #21,136 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
#21,136
National first-name rank
People counted
483
483 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mikhaila
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikhaila is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Two or More Races (9.7%). 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 Mikhaila 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 Mikhaila at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.8% · 250
- Black or African American20.3% · 98
- Two or more races9.7% · 47
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.3% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 43
Popularity
Mikhaila: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mikhaila from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 210 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
Mikhaila 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 Mikhaila during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikhailas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Mikhaila, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mikhaila
The name Mikhaila is a modern variation of the Russian name Mikhail, which itself is derived from the Hebrew name Michael. The name Michael means "who is like God" in Hebrew.
Mikhail is a popular name in Russia and other Slavic countries, with a long history dating back to the 10th century. The name was borne by several prominent Russian rulers, including Grand Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Vladimir (1271-1319) and Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov (1596-1645), the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.
The feminine form of Mikhail, Mikhailina, was used in medieval Russia, but it was not as common as the masculine form. The modern variation Mikhaila, and its spelling variant Mikhaila, emerged in the late 20th century as a more Westernized version of the traditional Russian name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Mikhaila was by the Russian-American author and philosopher Ayn Rand, who gave the name to one of the characters in her novel "Atlas Shrugged," published in 1957. However, it is unclear if this was meant to be a Russian name or a variation of the English name Michaela.
Other notable people named Mikhaila include Mikhaila Peterson (born 1992), a Canadian podcaster and author, and Mikhaila Friel (born 1987), an Irish actress known for her roles in television shows like "Skins" and "Ripper Street."
In the world of sports, Mikhaila Shiffrin (born 1995) is an American alpine ski racer and two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Mikhaila Petcheva (born 1982) is a Bulgarian former tennis player.
While the name Mikhaila is not as common as its masculine counterpart Mikhail, it has gained popularity in recent years, particularly in Western countries, as a unique and culturally diverse name with Russian and Hebrew roots.
People
Mikhaila + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mikhaila 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
Mikhaila: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mikhaila?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 511 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mikhaila 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 670,752 US residents.
Is Mikhaila a common name?
We classify Mikhaila as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 522 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mikhaila most popular?
The single biggest year for Mikhaila was 1996, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mikhaila is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mikhaila in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 483 people with the name Mikhaila, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,136 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 Mikhaila 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 Mikhaila?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mikhaila appears almost entirely female. Of the 493 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Mikhaila?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mikhaila is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Two or More Races (9.7%). 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 Mikhaila most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mikhaila in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.8% (250 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 Mikhaila in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mikhaila a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mikhaila 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 Mikhaila still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mikhaila 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 Mikhaila 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 Americans are named Mikhaila?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.