Rafaella
Feminine · “God has healed”
Rafaella is the Italian feminine of Raphael, and the Hebrew name is a sentence: God has healed.
How old is the name Rafaella?
Rafaella first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Rafaella is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Rafaella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rafaella most popular?
Rafaella peaked in 2022, reaching #3278 nationally. Today it ranks #4352, 1,074 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Refa'el to Rafaella
The story of Rafaella
Raphael appears substantially only in Tobit, where he accompanies a young man on a journey in disguise, arranges his marriage and cures his father's blindness — one of the more charming narratives in the deuterocanonical books. He is patron of travelers and of the blind. Italian gives Raffaella and Rafaella, and the name reaches American records with Italian and Brazilian families.
Meaning
God has healed
From Hebrew rapha, to heal, and el, God; Raphael is the archangel of healing in the book of Tobit, where he travels disguised and cures blindness. The same verb gives the modern Hebrew word for a doctor.
How the name formed
- Refa'el
- Raphael
- Rafaella
Related forms: Raffaella · Rafaela · Refa'el
Pronouncing Rafaella
rah-fah-EL-ah
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Every letter is sounded in Italian.
Nicknames for Rafaella
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 202249 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3278reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −13.5%32 in 2025, from 37
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Rafaella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Raffaella in Italian — spelling variant
- Rafaela in Spanish — same name
- Refa'el in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, New York, Texas.
Rafaellas among us
people named Rafaella are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was named Rafaella
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rafaella
- #4352
- Rafaella on the 2025 chart
- #820
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rafaella went to 32 girls in 2025, but Rafaela, Raphaella and Raffaella and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 140, which makes it the 820th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,532 places above the chart.
- Rafaela58
- Rafaella32
- Raphaella24
- Raffaella18
- Raphaela8
About 1 girl in 11,480 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 50,227 for Rafaella itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ricardo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rafaella's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ricardo climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ricardo's path sketches the road Rafaella is walking now.
Rafaella sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Rafaella is headed
Rafaella should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Rafaella beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rafaella in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that forms a complete sentence.
- Ella and Rafa are both ready short forms in current use.
- A genuinely charming narrative behind the archangel.
- Raffaella with two f's is the standard Italian spelling.
- Nine letters and four syllables is a great deal for early handwriting.
- Rafaella, Raffaella and Rafaela are all in use and none is dominant.
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What they receive
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Rafaella
Feminine · #4352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rafaellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Rafaella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rafaella?
- Rafaella is one of 5 recorded spellings. Rafaela is the more common one — 58 births in 2025 against 32 for Rafaella.
- How popular is the name Rafaella in 2025?
- Rafaella ranks #4352 among US girl names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rafaella?
- About 1 in every 50,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Rafaella — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rafaella with classmates?
- Rafaella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rafaella
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sigrid#4352 · Adel#4352 · Lovella#4352 · Kaysha#4352 · Arissa#4352 · Joseline#4352 · Yajaira#4352 · Elma#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rafaella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rafaella and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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