Missael is a form of Mishael, from Hebrew meaning "Who is what God is?" and known from the Bible.
Missael is a variant spelling of Mishael (Hebrew מִישָׁאֵל), an ancient name whose meaning poses a beautiful rhetorical question: "who is what God is?" — from mi (who), sha (is/that), and El (God). It is fundamentally a declaration of divine incomparability, a name that is itself a theological statement.
The name appears in the Hebrew Bible in several places, most memorably as one of three young Jewish men — Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah — taken into the court of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. Renamed by their Babylonian captors, they refused to abandon their faith and were thrown into a fiery furnace, emerging unharmed in one of scripture's most dramatic miracles. The name traveled through Greek as Misael and into Latin Christian tradition, appearing in the genealogies of the Gospel of Luke and maintaining a continuous thread of use in the Eastern Church.
In Latin American Catholic communities, the Misael/Missael spelling became especially prevalent — the name carries the warmth of Spanish phonology while retaining its biblical gravity. In Mexico, Colombia, and Central America, Missael has been a steady presence in the naming record for generations, a name that signals both religious heritage and a family's biblical literacy. The doubled S in Missael gives the spelling a slightly more elaborate, formal quality, distinguishing it visually while sounding nearly identical to Misael.
For parents today it offers a profound name that will likely prompt curiosity — and reward it. Few names carry a more quietly astonishing meaning: the unanswerable question embedded in a child's identity from birth.