Michaela

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008)

Michaela
Gender	Female
Meaning	Feminine form of Michael, meaning "who is like God?"
Origin	Hebrew
Related names	Micheal,Michelle
Wikipedia articles	All pages beginning with "Michaela"

Look up Michaela in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Michaela 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 and Austria in the 1960s and 1970s, notably the German actress Michaela May. Its use spread to Middle and North 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] The name's popularity in Britain may have been influenced by the success of wildlife documentary presenter Michaela Denis, who was seen widely on TV in the UK after the mid 1950s. The name was not among the top 100 newborn girls' names in England and Wales in the period 2003–2007.^[2]

Spelling variants include Michaela, Mekala, Micaila, Michaella, Michaelia, Michayla, Mikayla, Makayla, Mackayla, Mikaela, Macayla, Mikaila, Micaela and Mckayla, suggesting that some parents see it as an elaborated form of Kayla or Cayla. In the UK, it is sometimes shortened to "Mickie" or "Mickey."

Michela is the Italian form of the name, and Mikaela is the Scandinavian and Albanian form, Michaela in the German form, while Micaela is the Spanish and French, and Miguelina is also used in Spain and Portugal. In the Netherlands, the form Michaëla is used. Mihaela or Mikala are the Romanian forms, with Mihaela being the more traditional and Mikala the modern. It can also appear as Mikhaila, Machaila or Mikaylah. The name has several pronunciations, the most popular Mi-KAY-la also followed by mi-KAI-la, mee-KAH-AY-lah (German) mee-KAH-ee-lah (Italian), ma-KAY-la and the very rare variations mih-KEL-lah, mih-KIE-lah, and MY-kay-la.

[edit] Notable people with this name

• Michaela Denis (1914-2003), British-born film-maker
• Michaela Strachan (born 1966), British television presenter
• Michaela Watkins (born 1971), American actress
• Michaela McManus (born 1983), Actress of Law & Order, SVU
• Michaela Badinková, Slovak actress
• Michaela Dorfmeister, Austrian skier
• Michaela Kuklová, Czech actress
• Michaela Maurerová, Czech actress
• Michaela May, German actress
• Michaela Šojdrová, Czech politician
• Michaela Paľová, Slovak singer
• Michaela Paštěková, Slovak hiphop singer
• Michaela Chariau, French singer

[edit] Fictional characters

• Michaela McQueen in Channel 4's Hollyoaks
• Michaela Quinn in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
• Mikayla in the American television show Hannah Montana
• Micaela from Bizet's Carmen

[edit] References

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

This page or section lists people that share the same given name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.