Rafi
Masculine · “exalted”
Rafi is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 734 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Rafi is two names at one spelling, from two related languages. In Arabic it is an adjective meaning high and exalted. In Hebrew it is the everyday short form of Raphael. The two are cousins at a great distance and are not the same word.
How old is the name Rafi?
Rafi first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Rafi alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 700 people named Rafi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rafi most popular?
Rafi peaked in 2025, reaching #2884 nationally. Today it ranks #2884, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Rafi
The Arabic name comes from the ordinary adjective and belongs to the large group of Arabic names taken from admirable qualities. The Hebrew is a shortening: Raphael is one of the archangels, named in the book of Tobit as the one who heals, and modern Hebrew trims it to Rafi as it trims almost everything. Both roads reach United States records — Rafi from Arabic-speaking, Urdu-speaking and Indonesian families, and Rafi from Israeli ones — and neither community usually knows the other exists.
Meaningscholars disagree
exalted, high — in Arabic; or, through Raphael, God has healed
Arabic rafi means high, elevated or exalted, and al-Rafi, the Exalter, is among the ninety-nine names of God. Hebrew Rafi is the standard Israeli short form of Refael — El, 'God', with rafa, 'he healed'. The two roots are distinct even though both languages are Semitic, and the spelling gives no clue which one a family means.
Pronouncing Rafi
RAH-fee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Arabic gives it a slightly longer first vowel and a tapped r. Hebrew says RAH-fee too, so the two roads agree on the sound even where they disagree on the source.
Nicknames for Rafi
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 202543 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2884reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +13.2%43 in 2025, from 38
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.
Rafi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rafi in Arabic — transliteration
- Refael in Hebrew — related form
- Raphael in English — related form
- Rafi in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Michigan.
Rafis among us
people named Rafi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 39,723 born in 2025 was named Rafi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rafi
- #2884
- Rafi on the 2025 chart
- #869
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rafi went to 43 boys in 2025, but Raffi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 59, which makes it the 869th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,015 places above the chart.
- Rafi43
- Raffi16
About 1 boy in 28,950 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 39,723 for Rafi 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 Hari test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rafi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hari climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hari's path sketches the road Rafi is walking now.
Rafi 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 Rafi is headed
Rafi looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 21% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Rafi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rafi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two genuine and separate meanings, both of them fine ones.
- Four letters, entirely phonetic, and said correctly by English speakers at first sight.
- Raphael stands behind it as a full formal name on one of its two roads.
- Its meaning depends entirely on which tradition the family means.
- Rafi, Raffi and Rafee all circulate and belong to slightly different communities.
- It is short enough to read as a nickname on official documents.
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What they receive
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Rafi
Masculine · #2884 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rafis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Rafi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rafi?
- Rafi is the most-used spelling in US records — 43 of the 59 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Raffi.
- How popular is the name Rafi in 2025?
- Rafi ranks #2884 among US boy names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rafi?
- About 1 in every 39,723 US boys born in 2025 was named Rafi — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rafi with classmates?
- Rafi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rafi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kamal#2884 · Blu#2884 · Minh#2884 · Shaquille#2884 · Arnav#2884 · Jayven#2884 · Tytus#2884 · Hiro#2884
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rafi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rafi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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