Michaela

Michaela
Gender	Female
Origin
Word/Name	Hebrew,German
Meaning	Feminine form of Michael, meaning "who is like God."
Other names
Related names	Michael, Michelle

Michaela (Hebrew מיכאלה) is a feminine given name. It is a feminine form of the Hebrew name Michael (מִיכָאֵל), which means "Who is like God."

It was rare in any country until it became fashionable in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the 1950s to 1970s.^{[citation needed]} Its use spread to central and northern Europe, then the United Kingdom and the United States, where its popularity peaked in 1997, the year in which the popular TV series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman first aired in the U.S. with its lead character Michaela Quinn.

As of 2008, it was 357th in rank for newborn girls in the United States,^[1] and 325th in England and Wales.^[2]

In Germany, the name day for Michaela is 24 August and 29 September.^{[citation needed]}

Variant forms

There are numerous variant spellings. Equivalents in other languages include:

• ميكايلا (Arabic)
• მიქაელას (Georgian)
• Michèle, Micheline (French)
• Michela (Italian)
• Michalina (Polish)
• Mihaela (Romanian)
• Микаэла (Russian)
• Mikaela (Swedish)
• Мицхаела (Serbian)
• Micaela (Spanish)
• Mikal (Eastern Europe)
• Miykhaela (First Nation-Canadian)
• Μιχαέλα (Greek)

Notable people with this name

• Michaela Badinková (born 1979), Slovak actress
• Michala Banas (born 1978), New Zealand actress best known for the TV series McLeod's Daughters
• Michaela Bercu (born 1967), Romanian-Israeli model
• Michaela Conlin (born 1978), American actress in Bones
• Michaela Denis (1914-2003), British-born film-maker
• Michaela Dorfmeister (born 1973), Austrian skier
• Michaela Kargbo (born 1991), a track and field athlete in Sierra Leone
• Michaëlla Krajicek (born 1989), Dutch female tennis player, sister of Richard Krajicek
• Michaela McManus (born 1983), American actress in Law & Order, SVU
• Mikayla Mendez (born 1980), American pornographic actress
• Michaela Paštiková (born 1980), Czech tennis player
• Michaela Schaffrath (born 1970), German television actress
• Michaela Strachan (born 1966), British television presenter
• Michaela Watkins (born 1971), American actress
• Michaela McAreavey (1983-2011), Ulster Rose of Tralee 2004 and daughter of Mickey Harte

Fictional characters

• Mikayla (played by actress Selena Gomez) in the American television show Hannah Montana
• Micaela from Bizet's Carmen
• Mikaela Banes in Transformers
• Michaela Klingler, the main character (played by Sandra Hüller) in the 2006 German film Requiem
• Michaela Quinn, main character in TV show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
• Michaela White in TV show Waterloo Road
• Mikaela Banes in movie Transformers

Uses in popular culture

• ″Michaela″, 1999 German song by Element Crime
• "Michaela", 1972 German song by Bata Illic
• "Michaela", 2003 Hebrew song by Ron Shuval and Yoav Itzhak
• Michaela, 2004 Israeli television series (מיכאלה)

References

1. ^ Popular Baby Names, Social Security Administration.
2. ^ 2008 Baby Names Statistics Girls, England and Wales, Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2011-09-12.

Sources

• Michaela at "Behind the Name"
• Duden: Lexikon der Vornamen. 2004.

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