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Raphaela

#11,698 in 2025Girls' name

Feminine form of Raphael

Raphaela has been given to 499 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #11,698 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2016, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Raphaela, 2025

1 in 414,000

Raphaela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Raphaela: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Raphael

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Raphaela means

Raphaela is a feminine form of Raphael.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Raphaela is used in German.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ʁa.fa.ˈeː.la/ for Raphaela.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Raphaela → Raphael. The family’s meaning is “God cures/has healed”, recorded in English with the source elements Rāfāʾēl.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Raphael.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 499 girls were recorded with the name Raphaela between 1915 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 19 in 2016; its best national rank was #3,717 in 1915.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #7,867 in 2020 to #11,698 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #11,631 in 2015 to #11,698 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 Raphaela?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,698
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Raphaela 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 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Raphaela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Raphaelas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Raphaela was born before 2003 — so the typical Raphaela is around 22 today.

Median birth year
2003
About 22 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
23.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
458
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 23.2% of all recorded uses (116).

Is Raphaela 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
−2,864
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,831
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−67
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.89×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
42.1%
Peak was 2016 (19)
Years since peak
9
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,717
1915

Spellings of Raphaela

Raphaela is not the most common spelling — Rachael is, with 94.5% against Raphaela's 0.57%.

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 Raphaela is used

Across 1910–2025, Raphaela was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 2,501,280 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 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. Raphaela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Raphaela around the world

Where Raphaela 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
    #3,333
    in 2025
  • France
    1900–2021
    #5,293
    in 2021
  • Canada
    2018–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1984–2005
    #775
    in 2005

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.

Raphaela by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,698
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,831
Best rank ever
#3,717
1915
Peak year
2016
19 that year
First recorded
1915
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
499
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Raphaela

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

RaphaellaCristelaEmanuelaAntonelaAnabelaEsthelaMarianelaEmmanuelaRaphaelHermelaMickaelaDarielaJameelaGrabielaMachaelaKameelaLeonelaRaphaelleMikhaelaMychaelaKarmelaAnjelaRaffaelaEvangela

Sibling names for Raphaela

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 Raphaela

Top names of 2016, Raphaela's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1915Girls' names starting with R