Raphel
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Raphel has been given to 168 babies in the U.S. since 1921. 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 1991, with 11 recorded.
Babies named Raphel, 2023
1 in 663,000
Raphel over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Raphel?
Raphel had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2023
- 1 in 663,000
- 5 of 3,314,783 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 342,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2023
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 459,528 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Raphel sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Raphel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Raphels were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Raphel was born before 1984 — so the typical Raphel is around 41 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1980s
- 38.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 9.5%
- Mostly a past generation
- Recorded since 1950
- 145
- People you could plausibly meet
1980s — 38.7% of all recorded uses (65).
Is Raphel 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 1991 (11)
- Years since peak
- 34
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 28.7% average annual change
Spellings of Raphel
Raphel is not the most common spelling — Rafael is, with 68.0% against Raphel's 0.13%.
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.
Raphel around the world
Where Raphel 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 & Wales2006–2011#3,300in 2011
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.
Raphel by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Raphel
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Raphel
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.