Entry № 6829 · French origin

Michelle Michelle — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ mih-SHELL /
Gender
Girl
Origin
French
Meaning
"Who is like God"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Medieval (French)

A name that means "who is like god".

Michelle is the French feminine of Michel (Michael) — from the Hebrew Mîkhāʾēl, meaning "who is like God?" — a rhetorical question implying that no one is. The archangel Michael is the chief of the angels in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

Michelle peaked at #2 in the U.S. Today it sits in the U.S. top 250. Former First Lady Michelle Obama is one of the most prominent contemporary bearers.

Who is like God? The French feminine of Michael.

The name in its native script.

Michelle
Transliteration
Michelle
Pronunciation
/ mɪˈʃɛl /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Michelle stands.

Michelle does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Michelles before her.

Real people
Michelle Obama
Former First Lady of the United States.
born 1964
Michelle Yeoh
Malaysian actress, Oscar winner for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
born 1962
In fiction
Michelle
Subject of The Beatles' 1965 song.
1965 song

Names connected to Michelle.

The number behind Michelle.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Michelle reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.