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Rafe

#1,165 in 2025Boys' name

Advice, counsel + wolf, through Ralph

Rafe has been given to 2,935 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #1,165 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 179 recorded.

Babies named Rafe, 2025

1 in 18,500

Rafe over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rafe: meaning, origin, and history

Advice, counsel + wolf, through Ralph

Germanic languages

What Rafe means

Rafe belongs to the name family reached through Rafe → Ralph → Rǣdwulf. Its meaning is “advice, counsel + wolf”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rafe is used in English. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ralph, Raphael and Rǣdwulf.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Rafe is pronounced /ɹeɪf/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,935 boys were recorded with the name Rafe between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 179 in 2025; its best national rank was #887 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,042 in 2020 to #1,165 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,814 in 2015 to #1,165 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Rafe?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 18,500
179 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 9,540
0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,165
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
12,839 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rafe sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5003%

Put another way: gather 12,839 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rafe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rafes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rafe was born before 2010 — so the typical Rafe is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
26.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
72.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,792
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 26.7% of all recorded uses (783).

Is Rafe rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+147
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+877
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+649
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.16×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (179)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#887
1880

Spellings of Rafe

Rafe is not the most common spelling — Dale is, with 16.8% against Rafe's 0.18%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Rafe is used

Across 2016–2025, Rafe was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 3,448 boys, against 1 in 27,431 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in 100,000).

129 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 3,448
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 7,143
  3. 3Idaho1 in 16,667
  4. 4Tennessee1 in 16,667
  5. 5Indiana1 in 20,000
  6. 6Missouri1 in 20,000
  7. 7Florida1 in 25,000
  8. 8Iowa1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Rafe around the world

Where Rafe ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #201
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2006–2025
    #298
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2022–2022
    #414
    in 2022
  • Canada
    2002–2024
    #2,855
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1959–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Rafe

People whose public names include Rafe, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Rafe by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,165
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 877
Best rank ever
#887
1880
Peak year
2025
179 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,935
Count in 2025
179

Names similar to Rafe

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RafiRaffiLafeRafayRafaRafanRafealRafiqRaffaeleRafalRafaelRafelRafsanRaffertyRaffaelRafordRafidRafikRafielRafatRafRaferAsafeRafeeq

Names with a curve like Rafe

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Rafe, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ShalomRenzoIlanAkivaAymanNoamOzielDovidEitanYasinYakovUmar

Sibling names for Rafe

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Rafe

Top names of 2025, Rafe's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Boys' names starting with R