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Rahel

#8,236 in 2025Girls' name

Ewe, through רָחֵל

Rahel has been given to 511 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #8,236 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1996, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Rahel, 2025

1 in 255,000

Rahel over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rahel: meaning, origin, and history

Ewe, through רָחֵל

Biblical Hebrew

What Rahel means

Rahel belongs to the name family reached through Rahel → רָחֵל. Its meaning is “ewe”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rahel is used in Estonian, German and Turkish. Its origins include Biblical Hebrew.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Raahel and רָחֵל.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Rahel is pronounced /ˈʁaːhɛl/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 511 girls were recorded with the name Rahel between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1996; its best national rank was #4,542 in 1996.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,823 in 2020 to #8,236 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #9,358 in 2015 to #8,236 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 Rahel?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 255,000
13 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 124,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#8,236
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
176,762 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rahel sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 176,762 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rahel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rahels were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rahel was born before 2004 — so the typical Rahel is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
26.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
58.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
511
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 26.6% of all recorded uses (136).

Is Rahel 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
+4,904
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+587
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,122
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.08×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
56.5%
Peak was 1996 (23)
Years since peak
29
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
49.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,542
1996

Spellings of Rahel

Rahel is not the most common spelling — Rachel is, with 36.1% against Rahel's 0.03%.

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 Rahel is used

Across 1910–2025, Rahel was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,088,219 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Rahel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rahel around the world

Where Rahel 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
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • France
    1974–2025
    #3,633
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2014
    #506
    in 2014
  • Canada
    1996–2024
    #2,463
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1998–1999
    #729
    in 1999

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Rahel by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,236
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 587
Best rank ever
#4,542
1996
Peak year
1996
23 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
511
Count in 2025
13

Names similar to Rahel

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

RahafRahaRahilRahmaRahmahRahimaRahiRuchelRahabMishelRaheelRechelIxchelRashelGrethelRahcelEathelOthelMichelRahwaRochelRahniEithelBethel

Sibling names for Rahel

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 Rahel

Top names of 1996, Rahel's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1996Girls' names starting with R