Raul
Masculine · “counsel-wolf”
Raul is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 88,040 boys against 484 girls since 1880.
Raul is the Spanish and Portuguese form of a name the Franks built out of two hard old words, then handed to the Normans, who carried it into England. It has one of the cleanest sounds in the whole family — two open syllables, no consonant clusters, nothing to trip over in either English or Spanish. Its strongest footing in the US is across the southwest and California, where it moves between the two languages without changing a letter.
How old is the name Raul?
Raul first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Raul alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 73,500 people named Raul are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raul most popular?
Raul peaked in 1980, reaching #189 nationally. Today it ranks #634, 445 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Raul appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Rādwulf to Raul
The story of Raul
The oldest form is the Germanic Rādwulf, latinized as Radulf, which spread through Frankish territory in the early medieval period. Old French wore it down to Raoul, and Norman speakers took that form to England, where it settled as Ralph. On the Iberian peninsula the same name arrived and became Raúl in Spanish and Raul in Portuguese, keeping the stress on the second syllable rather than the first. It reached American records early in the twentieth century and has stayed on them since, carried largely by Spanish-speaking families.
Meaning
counsel-wolf, from Germanic rād 'advice, counsel' and wulf 'wolf'
The same two elements sit inside the English Ralph and the French Raoul; the Germanic naming habit of pairing an abstract quality with an animal is very old and very well documented.
How the name formed
- Rādwulf
- Radulf
- Raoul
- Raúl
- Raul
Related forms: Raúl · Raul · Raoul · Ralph · Raül · Raoul
Pronouncing Raul
rah-OOL
Two syllables, stress on the second. In Spanish the accent mark (Raúl) is what keeps the vowels apart; without it, English speakers sometimes flatten it to one syllable, closer to 'Rowl'.
Nicknames for Raul
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 19931,497 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #189reached in 1980
- Change vs 2023
- −7.8%440 in 2025, from 477
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.
Raul in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Raúl in Spanish — spelling variant
- Raul in Portuguese — same name
- Raoul in French — same name
- Ralph in English — related form
- Raül in Catalan — spelling variant
- Raoul in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Rauls among us
people named Raul are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,882 born in 2025 was named Raul
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 Randal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raul's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Randal climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Randal's path sketches the road Raul is walking now.
Raul 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 Raul is headed
Raul 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.
Raul beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raul in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Works unchanged in English, Spanish and Portuguese — only the accent mark shifts, and the sound stays recognizable in all three.
- Four letters, no silent letters, no competing spellings to choose between.
- A documented line running from early medieval Frankish names through Old French to the modern form.
- Familiar enough to be read at a glance, while a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Has an established affectionate form, Raulito, already in wide family use.
- The accent in Raúl will be dropped by school systems, forms and databases; deciding early whether you write it with or without saves years of small corrections.
- English-only speakers often need one gentle correction, either compressing it to a single syllable or reaching for the French Raoul.
- Its American strength is concentrated in the southwest and California, so outside those regions it may be met as unfamiliar rather than merely uncommon — which is not the same as difficult.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Raul to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Raul? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Raul
Masculine · #634 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rauls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 73,500 people named Raul are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Raul in 2025?
- Raul ranks #634 among US boy names in 2025, with 440 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raul?
- About 1 in every 3,882 US boys born in 2025 was named Raul — 440 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raul with classmates?
- Raul will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raul
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shane#635 · Izaiah#635 · Nathanael#632 · Zayd#632 · Ronald#637 · Leonard#637 · Kasai#639 · Memphis#639
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raul? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raul and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle