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Richelle

#10,739 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Rachel

Richelle has been given to 8,456 babies in the U.S. since 1942. In 2025 it ranked #10,739 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1969, with 281 recorded.

Babies named Richelle, 2025

1 in 368,000

Richelle over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Richelle: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Rachel

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Richelle means

Richelle is a variant of Rachel.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Richelle → Rachel. The family’s meaning is “ewe”, recorded in English with the source elements rāḫēl.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rachel.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,456 girls were recorded with the name Richelle between 1942 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 281 in 1969; its best national rank was #591 in 1969.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #7,877 in 2020 to #10,739 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,422 in 2015 to #10,739 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 Richelle?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 179,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#10,739
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
255,323 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Richelle 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 255,323 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Richelle. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Richelles were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Richelle was born before 1980 — so the typical Richelle is around 45 today.

Median birth year
1980
About 45 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
24.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
8,395
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 24.8% of all recorded uses (2,096).

Is Richelle 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
+2,439
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,862
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−5,317
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.36×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
3.2%
Peak was 1969 (281)
Years since peak
56
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#591
1969

Spellings of Richelle

Richelle is not the most common spelling — Michelle is, with 69.5% against Richelle's 0.72%.

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 Richelle is used

Across 1910–2025, Richelle was most concentrated in Washington — about 1 in 11,111 girls, against 1 in 26,110 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in —).

09 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Washington1 in 11,111
  2. 2Hawaii1 in 12,500
  3. 3California1 in 14,286
  4. 4Michigan1 in 14,286
  5. 5Colorado1 in 16,667
  6. 6Ohio1 in 16,667
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 16,667
  8. 8Utah1 in 16,667

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

Richelle around the world

Where Richelle 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
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1968–1993
    #516
    in 1993
  • France
    2006–2015
    #5,919
    in 2015
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1960–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, 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. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Richelle

People whose public names include Richelle, 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.

Richelle by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#10,739
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,862
Best rank ever
#591
1969
Peak year
1969
281 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,456
Count in 2025
9

Names similar to Richelle

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

RickelleAnabelleGisselleMaybelleDanyelleNichelleMarcelleChanelleShanelleIzabelleAbrielleMarielleChevelleRichardJenelleChantelleNicolleKamilleMozelleAubrielleJeanelleArabelleTennilleRachelle

Names with a curve like Richelle

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

HolliJeannaJeanaStaciaDarciDanelleCorinnaBridgettAndriaChristalDeidraBrigette

Sibling names for Richelle

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 Richelle

Top names of 1969, Richelle's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1969Girls' names starting with R