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Raoul

Boys' name

Form of Radulf

Raoul has been given to 2,915 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1928, with 53 recorded.

Babies named Raoul, 2024

1 in 669,000

Raoul over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Raoul: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Radulf

French

What Raoul means

Raoul is a form of Radulf.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Raoul is used in French.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ʁa.ul/ for Raoul.

Origin, language, and formation

Raoul is used in French, German and Old French. Its origins include French.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Radulf, Ralph and Raol.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Raoul is pronounced /ʁa.ul/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,915 boys were recorded with the name Raoul between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 53 in 1928; its best national rank was #774 in 1897.

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 Raoul?

Raoul had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Raoul 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 2024 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Raoul. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Raouls were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Raoul was born before 1950 — so the typical Raoul is around 75 today.

Median birth year
1950
About 75 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
14.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,488
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 14.2% of all recorded uses (414).

Is Raoul 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1928 (53)
Years since peak
97
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#774
1897

Spellings of Raoul

Raoul is not the most common spelling — Paul is, with 90.6% against Raoul's 0.19%.

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 Raoul is used

Across 1910–2025, Raoul was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 7,143 boys, against 1 in 84,900 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 7,143
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 50,000
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in 50,000
  5. 5New Hampshire1 in 50,000
  6. 6New York1 in 100,000
  7. 7Florida1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

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. Raoul has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Raoul around the world

Where Raoul 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
    1996–2023
    #3,524
    in 2023
  • France
    1900–2025
    #958
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–1994
    #531
    in 1994

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, 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. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Raoul

People whose public names include Raoul, 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.

Raoul in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Raoul. Linked forms have their own page here.

RalfRalphRaúlRaülRauli

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Raoul by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#774
1897
Peak year
1928
53 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,915
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Raoul

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

AbdoulSoulPoulRaoofKoulLeoulSeoulRaonRoulMouhamadoul

Names with a curve like Raoul

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

WymanCorneliousGarvinWaymanLovellEzellAlonzaThurstonFarrisGodfreyLlewellynVernard

Sibling names for Raoul

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 Raoul

Top names of 1928, Raoul's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1897Boys' names starting with RShort French Boy Names