“I have known of, I think, two [female] Michaels: Michael Sneed, [who] was a gossip columnist for the Chicago Sun‑Times and Michael Steele who played the bass for The Bangles.
And lest we forget, there are some female Michaels associated with TV: four-time Emmy winner Michael Learned of The Waltons and Michael Michele from ER.
And, of course, an archangel is named Michael as well, and it just had a lot of potency for us.”
After tossing around a couple of options, the writers eventually landed on Michael for the first officer of the USS Shenzhou.