Michèle
given name · Latin script
Meaning: a female given name, masculine equivalent Michel
A female name· listed as female by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 23 countries · latest register: Stadt Düsseldorf Open Data, 2015
/mi.ʃɛl/(recorded in a dictionary) French · from Wiktionary
Michèle is a female given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 2nd most common given name.
- ITItaly≈1 in 140(inferred from the name graph)
- BRBrazil1 in 1.1K
- CZCzechia1 in 43as Michal
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Michèle itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #3 (measured from records)
- 10 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 726 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 140 (inferred from the name graph)
3,476,721 named Michael, 2020
of 15M given names, spellings grouped
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Italy, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)8 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Michael in US United States, GB United Kingdom, DE Germany and 4 more, Михаил in RU Russia, Михайло in UA Ukraine and Michal in CZ Czechia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)a female given name, masculine equivalent Michel
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 26 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Michèle counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #2 | 3,476,721as Michael | 1 in 96 | 3.5M | Michael | 726 |
| RU Russia | #22 | ≈1,700,000 est. | ≈1 in 85 | register #8 | Михаил | 272 |
| GB United Kingdom | #3 | ≈950,000 est. | ≈1 in 73 | 626 | Michael | 482 |
| DE Germany | #2 | ≈940,000 est. | ≈1 in 89 | 4 | Michael | 389 |
| PH Philippines | #6 | ≈850,000 est. | ≈1 in 137 | listed | Michael | 237 |
| UA Ukraine | #23 | ≈520,000 est. | ≈1 in 73 | listed | Михайло | 131 |
| IT Italy | #11 | ≈420,000 est. | ≈1 in 140 | 1.5K | Michael | 217 |
| CZ Czechia | #3 | 246,648as Michal | 1 in 43 | 247K | Michal | 211 |
| BR Brazil | #269 | 187,281 | 1 in 1.1K | 202K | Michael | 213 |
| FI Finland | #144 | 106,915as Mikael | 1 in 52 | 133K | Mikael | 112 |
| IE Ireland | #3 | ≈80,000 est. | ≈1 in 68 | — | Michael | 225 |
3,476,721 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); the de-duesseldorf-vornamen register; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); MVČR — living population register 2017; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Michèle is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, ) Michelle [rni'Jel]: im 20 .Jh. entlehnter weibl. Vom., französische Form von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
French: feminine form of Michel (see MICHAEL ).
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Michèle Ray-Gavrasb. 1939FRFrench film producer
- Michèle Alliot-Marieb. 1946FRFrench politician
- Michèle Pierre-Louisb. 1947HTHaitian Prime Minister
- Tina Weymouthb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican musician
- Michèle Moutonb. 1951FRrally driver, most successful female driver in the World Rally Championship
- Michèle Laroqueb. 1960FRFrench actress
- Michèle Flournoyb. 1960USAmerican defense policy advisor
- Joanne Harrisb. 1964GBnot in their usual nameBritish and French author
- Princess Delphine of Belgiumb. 1968BEnot in their usual nameBelgian artist; extramarital daughter of King Albert II of Belgium
- Anaïs Demoustierb. 1987FRnot in their usual nameFrench actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)31 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 23 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 110 | #2,707 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 15 | #33,099 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 13 | — |
| DE Germany | Stadt Düsseldorf Open Data — Vornamen Neugeborene | 2015 | 4 | — |
| DE Germany | DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen (2007) | — | — | — |
| IT Italy | Il Grande Libro dei Nomi per Bebè (2020) | — | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | The Penguin Book of Baby Names (David Pickering) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Michèle a male or female name?
- Michèle is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: France (INSEE, 2015), Netherlands (Meertens NVB) and Finland (DVV).
- What does the name Michèle mean, and where does it come from?
- a female given name, masculine equivalent Michel Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Michèle?
- In the etymology graph, Michelle, Micaela and Michaela are forms of the same name in other languages; Micheline is a recorded short or pet form.
- How do you pronounce Michèle?
- In French /mi.ʃɛl/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Michèle have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 3.5 million people named Michael, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Michèle?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 187,281 people named Michèle in 2022, about 1 in 1.1 thousand residents.
- How common is Michèle compared with other names?
- In the United States, Michèle is the 2nd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Michèle?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/mich%C3%A8leThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Michèle” — the 2nd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.