Rafael
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals".
Name Census estimates that about 79,894 living Americans carry the first name Rafael. It sits at #222 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Rafael today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rafael births was 2006 (1,710 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rafael. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Rafael with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Rafael is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 569 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
80K
~ 1 in 4,290 Americans
Peak year
2006
1,710 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#222
Tracked since 1880
Census
Rafael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 148,937 people with the first name Rafael, which placed it at #373 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#373
National first-name rank
People counted
149K
148,937 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
49.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
90.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rafael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafael is Hispanic at 90.6%. The next largest groups are White (5.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Rafael described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Rafael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino90.6% · 134,994
- White5.5% · 8,186
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 2,733
- Black or African American1.5% · 2,195
- Two or more races0.4% · 625
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 204
Gender
Gender distribution for Rafael
Out of the 88,294 babies given the name Rafael since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Rafael as a male name
- Ranked #222 in 2024
- 1,614 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (1,702 births)
Rafael as a female name
- Ranked #14,865 in 2009
- 7 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1977 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rafael appears almost entirely male. Of the 148,942 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Rafael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rafael from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 15,093 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Rafael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rafael by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Rafael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rafaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Rafael, while South Dakota, Delaware, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,966 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rafael
The name Rafael is derived from the Hebrew name Refa'el, which means "God has healed" or "God's healer". It is a biblical name that appears in the Book of Tobit, one of the books of the Apocrypha.
The name first gained popularity in the Middle Ages, particularly in Spain and Italy, where it was often given to children born after a difficult pregnancy or illness, as a sign of gratitude for divine healing. The name was adopted into various European languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French, with slightly different spellings like Raphael, Raphaël, and Raffaele.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Raphael, the archangel mentioned in the Book of Tobit, who is believed to have guided and protected the young Tobias on his journey. In Christian tradition, Raphael is considered one of the seven archangels and is often depicted in art as a protector and healer.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals named Rafael or Raphael. One of the most famous was the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), renowned for his masterpieces such as "The School of Athens" and "The Sistine Madonna". His artistic genius earned him the epithet "The Prince of Painters".
Another prominent figure was Raphael Holinshed (c. 1529-1580), an English chronicler whose work, "Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland", was a major source for William Shakespeare's plays, including "Macbeth" and "King Lear".
In the realm of literature, Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) was an Italian-British writer best known for his swashbuckling adventure novels, including "Scaramouche" and "Captain Blood". His works were widely popular and adapted for films and television.
In the world of music, Rafael Kubelík (1914-1996) was a renowned Czech conductor and composer who led prestigious orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera House. He was celebrated for his interpretations of works by composers like Dvořák and Smetana.
Finally, Rafael Trujillo (1891-1961) was a Dominican political leader and military dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. His reign was marked by brutal repression and human rights abuses, but he also oversaw significant economic and infrastructural development in the country.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rafael
People
Rafael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rafael as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rafael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rafael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 79,894 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rafael going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,290 US residents.
Is Rafael a common name?
We classify Rafael as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 88,294 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rafael most popular?
The single biggest year for Rafael was 2006, when 1,710 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rafael is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rafael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 148,937 people with the name Rafael, or 49.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #373 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Rafael in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Rafael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rafael appears almost entirely male. Of the 148,942 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Rafael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafael is Hispanic at 90.6%. The next largest groups are White (5.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Rafael most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Rafael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.6% (134,994 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Rafael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rafael a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Rafael in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Rafael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rafael in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Rafael can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Rafael?
You can see how many people have the name Rafael on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.