Michaels
Usually a patronymic surname meaning “son or family of Michael.”
The #2,057 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 17,614 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Michaels is the genitive or possessive form of the personal name Michael, so the surname originally meant “Michael’s (son)” or “belonging to Michael.” Michael itself comes through Hebrew and Christian tradition, meaning “Who is like God?” In English and French records, Michaels appears as a straightforward family-name formation from the given name.
History
The name is well attested in medieval English records and is still found today both as a surname and, less often, in compound forms such as Michaelson. Historical surname writers also noted that some bearers may have been influenced by Irish naming patterns where Michael was common as a baptismal name. In Britain and later in America, it remained a fairly transparent surname built from the popular forename Michael.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
A few 19th-century surname dictionaries explicitly glossed Michaels simply as “the genitive form of Michael.”
From the historical record
“■El, God] MICHAELS, Michael's (Son) "I . ^.. i, , MICHAELSON, MiCHAEL'sSoN / ^- IVlichael. MICHEL IMcAe/isthe A.-French form of MICHELLJ Michael, q.v. Walter Michel.— /fM«rf. Rolls. MICHELS, Michel's (Son) : V. Michel. MICHIE, a Scot, double dim. of IVIJchael, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)