Michaela

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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.^{[citation needed]} 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, Michala, Michela, 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. It is sometimes shortened to "Mickie", "Mikey", 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, MY-kay-la, and Mih-SHAY-la.

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 Conlin (born 1978), American actress
• Michaela McManus (born 1983), Actress of Law & Order, SVU
• Michaela Badinková, Slovak actress
• Michaela Dorfmeister, Austrian skier

Fictional characters

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

References

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

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