All about the name "Mikhaela"
And a few other names as well.

I get a lot of questions (and compliments) about my name. So for the curious:
• "Mikhaela" is my parents' creative way of spelling the name "Michaela," derived from the boy's name "Michael." It's a Hebrew name meaning "who is like God."
• I have never met anyone else who uses the spelling "Mikhaela." But to my horror, when I tried to register www.mikhaela.com, it was taken--and unused. Which is why I'm www.mikhaela.net.
• Because I'm so used to having a unique name, I get really confused in stores where there are lots of children, as I invariably hear people yelling "Mikhaela, put that down" or "Mikhaela, get over here right now."
• According to a parenting website, "Michaela" (and its various spellings) was the 18th most popular girl baby name in 1997. The spelling variations (from most to least popular) were: MIKAYLA, MAKAYLA, MICHAELA, MIKAELA, MICHAELLA, MICHEAELA, MICHEALA, MICAILAH, MICAYLA, MIKHAELA, MIKIALA, MYCALA, MIKALA, MIKALAH, MAKAILA, MAKAELA, MYCHAELA, MYKAELA, MYKAYLA, MYKAYLIA. These spellings are all quite familiar, as I used to see them whenever I exchanged Valentines with my classmates in elementary school.
• I also get questions about where my middle name, "Blake", comes from. The answer is that my mother really loves the work of poet/artist William Blake.
• In case anyone cares, my family always names its dogs after photographic processes (my mom majored in photography in college, and both my sibling and I do photography in college although I didn't end up majoring in it, what can I say?). So our current dog's name is Cyanotype, and our previous dog was Gumbichromate.
• From the age of 8 on I decided to name all cats after characters from the Oz books, but was only able to use "Tik-Tok" and "Ozma" before I adopted a toothless old cat who already had the name "Willow."
• OK, that's all the procrastinating I'll do for now. Back to my papers.