Mike
- Pronunciation
- [Mike]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Michael And Micah Who Is Like God?
- Origin
- English
About the Name Mike
Mike is an English short form of Michael, one of the great archangel names of the Abrahamic tradition. Michael derives from the Hebrew Mikha'el — a rhetorical question meaning "Who is like God?" — implying that no one is, and thus functioning as an expression of divine incomparability. The name has been among the most consistently popular masculine names in the English-speaking world for centuries. As an independent given name, Mike embodies mid-century American informality: direct, punchy, no-nonsense, and friendly in a way the longer Michael is not.
The SSA charts includes a wide range of well-known bearers. Hall of Fame NFL player and head coach Mike Ditka (born 1939) won a Super Bowl championship as head coach in 1986 with the Chicago Bears and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988. Rock singer and co-founding lyricist Mike Love (born 1941) built a six-decade career primarily as the lead singer of The Beach Boys. Canadian actor and comedian Mike Myers (born 1963) is known for multiple defining comedy films, particularly his 1992 lead role as Wayne Campbell in Wayne's World. Hall of Fame boxer Mike Tyson (born 1966) became the youngest heavyweight champion in history with his 1986 first heavyweight-boxing-championship victory at age 20. Comedian and actor Mike Epps (born 1970) produced multiple defining comedy film and TV roles across three decades. Musician Mike Shinoda (born 1977) co-founded the rock band Linkin Park and has built one of the defining careers in early-2000s alternative rock.
Mike first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1943 and peaked in 1960 at rank #36, accumulating over 135,000 top-1000 births. It left the top-1000 after 2017, when it appeared at #952. Recorded variants include Mick, Mickey, and Mikey.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Mike
US Popularity History (1943–2017)
Annual US births named Mike by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1960 with 12,041 boys named Mike (boy rank #36 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2017, ranked #952 for boys (219 US births). That's 916 places below its 1960 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Mike Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Mike the strongest states are Florida, New Jersey, Massachusetts.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #535 | 283 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #678 | 92 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #678 | 20 |
| 4 | New York | #712 | 188 |
| 5 | California | #832 | 221 |
| 6 | Texas | #938 | 122 |
| 7 | Arizona | #958 | 15 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | #958 | 15 |
| 2 | Texas | #938 | 122 |
| 3 | California | #832 | 221 |
| 4 | New York | #712 | 188 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | #678 | 20 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #678 | 92 |
| 7 | Florida | #535 | 283 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Mike in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Mike
6 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Mike.
- Mike Ditka — Coach (1939)
- Mike Epps — Comedian (1970)
- Mike Love — Rock Singer (1941)
- Mike Myers — Movie Actor (1963)
- Mike Shinoda — Guitarist (1977)
- Mike Tyson — Boxer (1966)
Looking for names like Mike?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Mike to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Mike against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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