9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Floyd vs Michael

How Floyd and Michael compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Floyd

Male · Celtic

Meaning: Gray

Michael

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Gift From God

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Floyd (boys) vs Michael (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Floyd Michael
Peak year (most US births) 1926 — 3,623 boys 1957 — 92,786 boys
Peak rank #53 #1
Most recent rank (1939) #94 (2,094 births) #21 (8,094 births)
Total US births since 1880 90,917 4,426,620
Last 10 years (1930–1939) 24,887 101,773

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Michael reached 92,786 US births in 1957 — 89,163 more than Floyd's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Floyd births Michael births
1891 Floyd 336 333
1893 Michael 351 407
1894 Floyd 445 423
1896 Michael 396 399
1897 Floyd 451 368
1899 Michael 356 375
1900 Floyd 555 495
1904 Michael 446 462
1905 Floyd 523 513
1906 Michael 458 531
1926 Floyd 3,623 3,485
1927 Michael 3,549 3,605

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Michael — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #5 3,719
2 New York #7 7,385
3 Pennsylvania #9 4,259
4 Connecticut #10 1,324
5 Florida #11 6,385

Want a different comparison?

Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →