 Michael was the illegitimate son of the sebastokrator John Doukas. His paternal grandparents were Constantine Angelos and Theodora, a daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (reigned 1081 – 1118). Michael's uncle, Andronikos, was the father of the future emperors Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185 – 95 and 1203 – 04) and Alexios III Angelos (r. 1195 – 1203), who were thus Michael's first cousins. Despite this kinship, he never used the surname "Angelos", which has been applied by some modern scholars to Michael and his dynasty. The few documents surviving from his own hand and a couple of lead seals show his name as "Michael Doukas" or "Michael Komnenos Doukas" (Μιχαήλ Κομνηνός ὁ Δούκας), evidently in an effort to emphasize his relation to the revered Doukas and Komnenos dynasties, rather than the disastrous reign of the Angeloi. The only medieval sources to use the surname "Angelos" to refer to Michael were later pro-Palaiologos historians hostile to him and the Epirote state's rival claims to the Byzantine inheritance.
