Gender Masculine
Usage English, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Czech, Hebrew, Biblical, Biblical Latin [1] , Biblical Greek [2]
Scripts מִיכָאֵל (Hebrew) Pron. /ˈmaɪ.kəl/ (English) /ˈmɪ.çaː.eːl/ (German) /ˈmi.kæːl/ (Danish) /ˈmiː.ka.ɛl/ (Swedish) /ˈmiː.kɑː.ɛl/ (Norwegian) /ˈmɪ.xa.ɛl/ (Czech) /mi.χa.ˈʔel/ (Hebrew) /mi.ˈkhaː.eːl/ (Latin) [key ·simplify]
Meaning & History
From the Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Miḵaʾel) meaning "who is like God?" [3] [4] , derived from the interrogative pronoun מִי (mi) combined with ךְּ (ke) meaning "like" and אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God" [5] [6] . This is a rhetorical question, implying no person is like God. Michael is one of the archangels in Hebrew tradition and the only one identified as an archangel in the Bible. In the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament he is named as a protector of Israel (see Daniel 12:1). In the Book of Revelation in the New Testament he is portrayed as the leader of heaven's armies in the war against Satan, and is thus considered the patron saint of soldiers in Christianity.The popularity of the saint led to the name being used by nine Byzantine emperors, including Michael VIII Palaeologus who restored the empire in the 13th century. It has been common in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, and in England since the 12th century. It has been borne (in various spellings) by rulers of Russia (spelled Family Tree ·Details
