Quick poll: What’s your favorite spelling of the girl name Michaela? The poll is to the right. [Poll closed; see below.]
Poll results (375 votes total):
Makayla: 29 votes, roughly 8%
McKayla: 20 votes, roughly 5%
Michaela: 249 votes, roughly 66%
Mikayla: 67 votes, roughly 18%
other: 10 votes, roughly 3%
My preference depends on whether you’re intending to always call her Michaela, or if you might shorten it to Kayla (from Mikayla).
So, I voted for “other”.
It also depends on whether you’re intentionally naming her after someone named Michael. Or if you just happen to like the name.
I actually prefer it spelled Michaella – I see this version more as its own name, while it looks like “Michael” with an ‘a’ at the end the other. *hrug*
Mmm… Well, I don’t care for the name at all, but I am a traditionalist so I voted for the spelling you used: Michaela. If anything, I would drop the H.
As an aside, Mc names always make me think “son of,” (although they could just as easily mean “child of,” I suppose!) so it rubs me the wrong way when people use Mc names for girls.
I guess I’m just sensitive today. LOL
I’m sorry, I’m stickler for traditional spellings. The only right one to me is Michaela. I can’t stand it spelled any other way!
Can you clarify pronounciation? I read this and think Me–ka–ella. I definitely do not think Mi–Kay–la.
I think of them as all being pronounced “mih-KAY-luh,” although I did have a co-worker Michaela who pronounced it MIKE-uh-luh.
I didn’t realize that Michaela and Makayla were the same names…I keep reading it as Michael-a.
If I wanted to name a daughter after a Michael, I would name her Michelle. So, I prefer Mikayla because it makes the pronunciation more obviousl.
Normally, I don’t like creative spellings, but I think in this case I like Mikayla better than Michaela. Michaela seems like it might be a typo.
I too dislike Mc/Mac names for girls. It means “son of.” In Gaelic, “Ni” indicates daughter of, and O (in irish) or Mc (in scottish) indicate son of. /End pedantic rant.
Anyhoo, if I had to choose, I’d choose Michaela.
I like Mikaela, probably because I grew up with someone who spelled it like that, so it’s what looks “right” to me. I knew another woman with the name in college who spelled it that way and used the nickname Mika (“meeka”) which I thought was nice.
My preference is for Micaela.
I had a student who spelled her name “Mikayla,” and I appreciated from the very start that her name was spelled just the way it sounded. I hadn’t run into the name too much before, but as soon as I saw it spelled like that on my class list, I liked it. Then, as it turns out, she was a delightful little girl, so that clinched it. “Mikayla” is the only way to go, in my opinion!
PS Quick polls are fun! More, please!