Michelle
Michelle is ranked 409th among girls in 2024 (772 births). Its best rank was 2nd, in 1968–1969, 1971–1972.
- Rank in 2024
- #409down 8 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 7720.05% of girls
- Peak year
- 196934,319 births
- Best rank
- #2first in 1968
- Since 1915
- 819,099people given the name
The story in the numbers
815,849 girls have been named Michelle in the United States since 1915, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1969, with 34,319 births — 2.0% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 772 births in 2024, against 34,319 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1974, and the 1970s alone account for 31%. It has spent 87 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 54 of them in the top 100 and 15 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 3,250 boys have also been given it, 0.40% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Michelle | |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 17 | |
| 1920s | 97 | |
| 1930s | 293 | |
| 1940s | 5,693 | |
| 1950s | 46,779 | |
| 1960s | 208,296 | |
| 1970s | 249,136 | |
| 1980s | 154,032 | |
| 1990s | 86,529 | |
| 2000s | 43,538 | |
| 2010s | 17,354 | |
| 2020s | 4,085 |
In 1969, its biggest year
Michelle was the 2nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1969 were Lisa, Michelle, Jennifer, Kimberly and Melissa. See all of 1969.
Names that rose and fell with Michelle
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Terinapeak 1969
- Toipeak 1974
- Michellpeak 1971
- Kimberlypeak 1970
- Tangelapeak 1971
- Sebrinapeak 1970
- Larondapeak 1973
- Lasandrapeak 1972
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.