Mykell
A masculine name derived from the Hebrew name Michael, meaning "who is like God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,040 living Americans carry the first name Mykell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Mykell today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mykell births was 2004 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mykell. 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.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 329,571 Americans
Peak year
2004
56 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,168
Tracked since 1984
Census
Mykell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 806 people with the first name Mykell, which placed it at #14,580 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
#14,580
National first-name rank
People counted
806
806 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mykell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mykell is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are White (16.3%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Mykell 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 Mykell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.5% · 552
- White16.3% · 131
- Two or more races7.3% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Mykell
Mykell is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,056 total registrations, 798 (75.6%) were male and 258 (24.4%) were female.
Mykell as a male name
- Ranked #5,168 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (42 births)
Mykell as a female name
- Ranked #17,240 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 1999 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mykell on both sides of the split. Of the 805 people counted with this name, 553 were male (68.7%) and 252 were female (31.3%).
Popularity
Mykell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mykell from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 416 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
Mykell 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 Mykell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mykells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Ohio, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Mykell, while South Carolina, Missouri, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mykell
The name Mykell is derived from the Hebrew name Michael, which means "who is like God?" It originated in the late 5th century BC in ancient Israel and the surrounding regions. The name is rooted in the Hebrew words "mi" meaning "who" and "kel" meaning "God."
In the Bible, Michael is mentioned as an archangel and is considered a leader of the heavenly host. He is revered in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. The name appears in various spellings, including Mikhail, Mikael, and Mikel, across different languages and cultures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mykell can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landowners in England in 1086. Mykell de Grenville, a Norman landowner, was listed as holding lands in several counties.
Throughout history, notable individuals bearing the name Mykell include Mykell Sydenum (1503-1576), an English bishop and academic during the Protestant Reformation. Mykell de la Pole (1352-1415) was an English nobleman and military commander who served as Earl of Suffolk.
In the arts, Mykell Tye (1505-1572) was an English composer and organist during the Renaissance period, known for his choral works. Mykell Drayton (1563-1631) was an English poet and playwright, celebrated for his pastoral poems and historical works.
Another notable figure was Mykell Faraday (1791-1867), a renowned English scientist who contributed significantly to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His discoveries and experiments laid the foundation for modern electromagnetic field theory and the concept of electromagnetic induction.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have borne the name Mykell throughout history, each leaving their mark in various fields and disciplines.
People
Mykell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mykell 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
Mykell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mykell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,040 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mykell 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 329,571 US residents.
Is Mykell a common name?
We classify Mykell as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,056 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mykell most popular?
The single biggest year for Mykell was 2004, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mykell is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mykell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 806 people with the name Mykell, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,580 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 Mykell 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 Mykell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mykell on both sides of the split. Of the 805 people counted with this name, 553 were male (68.7%) and 252 were female (31.3%). 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 Mykell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mykell is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are White (16.3%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Mykell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mykell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.5% (552 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 Mykell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mykell a male name?
Yes, 75.6% of people registered as Mykell 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 Mykell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mykell 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 Mykell 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 share the name Mykell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.