Mihail
A rarer cousin of Michał, from the Hebrew for "who is like god". Most Poles have never met one, and it's given to boys even less often now than a few years back.
Mihail Pronunciation
Mihail is pronounced mee-KHAH-eel (/miˈxail/).
What Mihail means
Where Mihail comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Mihail traces back to the Hebrew Mikha'el, which reads as a question: who is like God? The question expects no answer, and the name kept that shape. In Polish the same root gave Michał, the common form for boys, and Michalina, the version passed to daughters. Mihail is the spelling that traveled through the Orthodox and Balkan Slavic world before turning up again in Polish records.
The short meaning, "who is like god," began as the war cry of the archangel Michael, patron of soldiers and of many Polish parish churches. His feast falls on 29 September, and that date became the imieniny shared by the whole family of the name. A child registered as Mihail on an official form at the urząd inherits that day too.
Two forms sit close to it. Michał for a son, Michalina for a daughter. Both answer the same old Hebrew question.
How many people are named Mihail
1 in 10986 men in Poland is named Mihail. 1,943 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #711 among male names.
Mihail's popularity over time
3 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1307 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2017. Still the #711 name among living men, even as it slips to #1307 among newborns.
Where Mihail is most popular
Mihail is most popular in Lubusz, 988% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+588%) and Masovian (+52%).
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Lubusz2 boys born+988%
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Lower Silesian4 boys born+588%
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Masovian2 boys born+52%
Mihail as a middle name
Mihail is a first name for 1,943 men in Poland and a middle name for another 13, a 99/1 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 2663rd, between Merlin (13) and Mikel (13).
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2661
13Medhat
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2662
13Merlin
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266313Mihail
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2664
13Mikel
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2665
13Mohamed Ahmed