Raquel
Feminine · “ewe”
Raquel is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 50,697 girls against 281 boys since 1880.
Raquel is the Spanish and Portuguese road to one of the oldest names in the Western record — the Rachel of Genesis, carried into Iberian mouths where the ch softened to a hard k and the stress landed firmly on the second syllable. It has been in continuous use in Spanish for centuries, and in the United States it has always kept close company with Spanish-speaking families, strongest in California, Texas and New York. Three syllables that end on a bright, clipped note.
How old is the name Raquel?
Raquel first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Raquel alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 47,500 people named Raquel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raquel most popular?
Raquel peaked in 1970, reaching #215 nationally. Today it ranks #1120, 905 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Raquel appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Rāḥēl to Raquel
The story of Raquel
The name begins in the Hebrew Bible, where Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban and the wife of Jacob — a figure central enough that her name traveled with every translation of the text. Greek translators wrote it Ῥαχήλ, Latin took it as Rachel, and from Latin it entered the Iberian languages, where the middle consonant hardened and the spelling settled as Raquel in both Spanish and Portuguese. It spread with those languages across Latin America and the Philippines, and reached the United States along the same routes. In the twentieth century an American film actress named Raquel gave the spelling wide currency in English-speaking households too.
Meaning
ewe, female sheep
From the Hebrew Rāḥēl. The pastoral image was an ordinary compliment in the world that produced it, where flocks were wealth.
How the name formed
- Rāḥēl
- ῬαχήλRhachēl
- Rachel
- Raquel
Related forms: Rachel · Raquel · Rachele · Rahel · Rakel · Rachela
Pronouncing Raquel
rah-KEL
The qu is a plain k, never kw. In Spanish the r is a light tap and the vowels stay clean; English speakers commonly reduce the first syllable to ruh-KEL, which is widely accepted.
Nicknames for Raquel
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 19911,272 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #215reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −29.2%209 in 2025, from 295
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.
Raquel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rachel in English — same name
- Raquel in Portuguese — same name
- Rachele in Italian — same name
- Rahel in German — same name
- Rakel in Swedish — same name
- Rachela in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Raquels among us
people named Raquel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,690 born in 2025 was named Raquel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Francine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raquel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francine climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francine's path sketches the road Raquel is walking now.
Raquel 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 Raquel is headed
Raquel 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.
Raquel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raquel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled, unambiguous meaning that goes back to the Hebrew Bible — the kind of answer that does not change with the next reference book.
- One spelling across Spanish and Portuguese, and an obvious sibling in English Rachel, so it stays legible in several languages at once.
- Familiar to most Americans by sound while still uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Ready-made informal forms in Spanish — Raqui, Raquelita — without needing invention.
- English speakers who know Rachel better may write that instead, or reach for Raquelle or Raquell. Expect to spell it aloud fairly often.
- The qu trips some readers into a kw sound on first sight. It sorts itself out quickly once heard, but the first meeting can be clumsy.
- Short forms come easily in Spanish and less easily in English, where Kel is about the only natural clip. If nicknames matter to you, that is worth a thought.
- It sits some distance below its old high-water mark, so it reads as a name of established generations rather than a current favorite — quiet company rather than a crowd.
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What they receive
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Raquel
Feminine · #1120 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raquels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 47,500 people named Raquel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Raquel in 2025?
- Raquel ranks #1120 among US girl names in 2025, with 209 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raquel?
- About 1 in every 7,690 US girls born in 2025 was named Raquel — 209 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raquel with classmates?
- Raquel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raquel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ingrid#1120 · Princess#1120 · Xolani#1120 · Ida#1120 · Rhiannon#1119 · Imogen#1117 · Kacey#1117 · Dior#1125
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raquel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raquel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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