English

Alternative forms

• Makayla, Mikaela, Mikayla

Proper noun

Michaela

1. A female given name.
   • 1897 Clarissa Joy Suraji (=Grant Allen), The Type-writer Girl, Street & Smith (1900), page 227:

     Do you remember at Holmwood I called you Michaela, because you were so fair, like the girl in the opera? Now, this type-writer girl is dark, and she has been playing Carmen to you - stealing your love away from you by her clever ways.

   • 2008 Sandra Kitt, For All We Know, Harlequin, ISBN 0373831048, page 176:

     Edward had asked about her name. What was the origin and the meaning? "Unusual, but it has a nice sound. Kind of like Mahalia."

     Michaela had lifted her shoulders, helplessly. "I have no idea. My mother said she read it somewhere and liked the sound. And she didn't want me to have a name like everyone else. She said she thought I was going to be special."

Usage notes

• Taken up as a name of Anglophones in the 1950s, first in the U.K., later in the U.S.A. with a frequency peak in the 1990s.

Related terms

• pet forms: Mickey, Micky
• variants: Michelle, Michele, Kayla

Translations

Czech

Proper noun

Michaela f

1. A female given name, cognate to English Michaela.

German

Etymology

Feminine form of Michael taken into general use in the 20th century.

Proper noun

Michaela

1. A female given name.

Usage notes

• Popular in Germany in the 1960s and the 1970s.

Slovak

Proper noun

Michaela f

1. A female given name.

Swedish

Etymology

Less common spelling of Mikaela. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1843.

Proper noun

Michaela

1. A female given name.