Humanverse

Micheal vs Micheaux

American parents have registered 156,555 Micheals since 1880, against 21 Micheauxes. Micheal is still ahead, with 130 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Micheal against Micheaux, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Micheal Micheaux

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Micheal has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1983, when Micheal had 1,958 and Micheaux had 16.

Side by side

  Micheal Micheaux
Total US births 156,55521
Most in one year 4,86116
Babies in 2025 130under 5
Estimated living today 124,00020
Median age today 5542
Peak year 19571983
Best rank 85th boys2,787th boys
Rank in 2025 1,401stunranked
First recorded 18801983
Girls / boys 1,836 / 154,7190 / 21

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Micheals alive today are over 55; half the Micheauxes are over 42. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Micheal and Micheaux.