Meaning of the nameMiguel

Miguel is a male name of Hebrew origin meaning 'who is like God?', the name of an archangel.

Meaning

“who is like God?”

Source: Wiktionary: Miguel · Behind the Name: Michael · Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Miguel

People (2022): 715,241
Rank in Brazil: #18
Median age: 7 years
2010 Census: 240,880; people

Miguel in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Miguel, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 2010s (368,970 people).

5,946 women 709,295 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Miguel is most common

States with the highest share of people named Miguel in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	188,256	0.424%
Minas Gerais	84,645	0.412%
Rio de Janeiro	72,408	0.451%
Paraná	47,066	0.411%
Rio Grande do Sul	38,215	0.351%
Bahia	38,092	0.269%
Santa Catarina	28,492	0.374%
Goiás	26,710	0.379%
Pernambuco	25,494	0.281%
Ceará	20,277	0.231%
Pará	19,432	0.239%
Espírito Santo	14,699	0.383%
Mato Grosso	12,749	0.349%
Distrito Federal	12,605	0.447%
Maranhão	11,987	0.177%
Paraíba	11,396	0.287%
Amazonas	10,399	0.264%
Mato Grosso do Sul	9,897	0.359%
Rio Grande do Norte	8,289	0.251%
Piauí	7,242	0.221%
Alagoas	6,859	0.219%
Rondônia	5,224	0.330%
Sergipe	4,952	0.224%
Tocantins	4,185	0.277%
Amapá	1,926	0.263%
Acre	1,874	0.226%
Roraima	1,871	0.294%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Miguel

Miguel comes from the Biblical Hebrew Mikhael, formed from 'who', 'like' and 'God', and reached Portuguese through Greek, Latin Michaël and Old Galician-Portuguese, according to Wiktionary. Behind the Name explains that the question 'who is like God?' is rhetorical: no one is like God. In the Bible, Michael is the only one called an archangel, and the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil) notes that the name refers to the archangel Saint Michael. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 715,241 people named Miguel, with a median age of 7. Already present among people born before 1940, the name gained strength from the 2000s onward, peaked among people born in the 2010s and, proportionally, is most common in Rio de Janeiro.

Sources

Wiktionary: Miguel · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
Behind the Name: Michael · behindthename.com · meaning
Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Miguel · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · meaning

Questions about the name Miguel

What does the name Miguel mean?

Miguel means “who is like God?”, according to Wiktionary and Behind the Name.

How many people are named Miguel in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 715,241 people with the first name Miguel, which ranks it number 18 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 2010s.

Is Miguel a boy's or a girl's name?

Miguel is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 5,946 women and 709,295 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Miguel?

Miguel is a name of Hebrew origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Miguel most common?

Proportionally, in Rio de Janeiro: 0.451% of the state's population is named Miguel (72,408 people), according to the 2022 Census.

Names that also mean God

See all

More names of Hebrew origin

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Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Miguel with a source. See the methodology.