Raphael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “God has healed”
Raphael is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 24,258 boys against 323 girls since 1880.
Raphael is the name of the healing archangel of the Book of Tobit, who walks the whole story disguised as an ordinary traveling companion. It came through Hebrew into Greek and Latin, then into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and it has kept its shape in all of them. Three syllables, all of them open — the mouth never quite closes on it.
How old is the name Raphael?
Raphael first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Raphael alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 20,500 people named Raphael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raphael most popular?
Raphael peaked in 2025, reaching #394 nationally. Today it ranks #394, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Rephael (Hebrew) to Raphael
The story of Raphael
The name is Hebrew, and it belongs first to one of the named archangels: Raphael appears in the Book of Tobit, guiding a young man on a long journey and restoring his father's sight, without revealing who he is until the end. Greek and then Latin scripture carried the spelling with ph, which is why English still writes it that way while Spanish and Portuguese write Rafael. It spread widely through Catholic Europe — Italy in particular, where the High Renaissance painter known in English simply as Raphael made the name unmistakable — and it has been in continuous use in Jewish families as well. In the United States it has been recorded since the nineteenth century without a real break, and it is strongest today in California, Texas and New York.
Meaning
God has healed
From Hebrew rapha, to heal, joined to El, God — the same El that ends Michael, Gabriel and Daniel.
How the name formed
- RephaelHebrew
- RhaphaēlGreek
- RaphaelLatin
- Raffaello / Rafael
- Raphael
Related forms: Rafael · Raffaele · Raphaël · Rafael · Raffael · Refael
Pronouncing Raphael
RAF-ay-el
Also heard as RAF-ee-el and RAY-fee-el in English; Spanish and Portuguese Rafael is rah-fah-EL with the stress at the end, and French Raphaël is rah-fa-EL. All are correct for the name — worth deciding which one your family will use.
Nicknames for Raphael
High
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 2025807 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #394reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +25.9%807 in 2025, from 641
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.
Raphael in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rafael in Spanish — spelling variant
- Raffaele in Italian — same name
- Raphaël in French — same name
- Rafael in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Raffael in German — spelling variant
- Refael in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Raphaels among us
people named Raphael are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,117 born in 2025 was named Raphael
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Raphael
- #394
- Raphael on the 2025 chart
- #155
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Raphael went to 807 boys in 2025, but Rafael is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 2,455, which makes it the 155th most-given boys’ name of the year — 239 places above the chart.
- Rafael1,639
- Raphael807
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 696 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,117 for Raphael 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 Robby test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raphael's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Robby climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Robby's path sketches the road Raphael is walking now.
Raphael is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Raphael is headed
Raphael should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Raphael beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raphael in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged or near-unchanged in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and German — useful in a bilingual or multi-country family.
- Several long-established short forms already in real use: Rafa, Rafi, Raph, Rafe.
- An unbroken written record from Hebrew scripture through Latin, Renaissance Italy and modern Europe.
- Recognizable on sight and never needs explaining, even where the ph spelling is less usual.
- Charts in Canada as well as the United States, so it travels north without adjustment.
- Rafael is the more common spelling in Spanish and Portuguese, so expect to specify 'with a ph' fairly often — at doctors' offices, on class lists, in email addresses.
- Pronunciation genuinely varies: RAF-ay-el, RAF-ee-el and rah-fah-EL all belong to the name. Correcting people is a lifelong low-level task, though most take the correction easily.
- For anyone who grew up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Raphael is the one in the red mask. It comes up on playgrounds and it passes.
- It is a long name in a period that leans short. Most bearers settle into a one- or two-syllable form early, which is worth being at peace with in advance.
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Raphael
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #394 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raphaels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,500 people named Raphael are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Raphael?
- Raphael is one of 2 recorded spellings. Rafael is the more common one — 1,639 births in 2025 against 807 for Raphael.
- How popular is the name Raphael in 2025?
- Raphael ranks #394 among US boy names in 2025, with 807 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raphael?
- About 1 in every 2,117 US boys born in 2025 was named Raphael — 807 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raphael with classmates?
- Raphael will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raphael
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Raymond#394 · Ari#393 · Jared#396 · Jay#392 · Zander#396 · Kamari#391 · Edwin#398 · Iker#390
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raphael? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raphael and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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