Raizel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "rose of God".
Name Census estimates that about 1,656 living Americans carry the first name Raizel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Raizel today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raizel births was 2024 (90 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raizel. 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 Raizel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 206,977 Americans
Peak year
2024
90 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,126
Tracked since 1953
Census
Raizel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,135 people with the first name Raizel, which placed it at #11,353 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
#11,353
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,135 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raizel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raizel is White at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.0%). 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 Raizel 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 Raizel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.7% · 961
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 79
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.0% · 68
- Black or African American1.6% · 18
- Two or more races0.8% · 9
Popularity
Raizel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raizel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 503 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raizel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raizel 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 Raizel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raizels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Raizel, while Texas, California, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 331 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Raizel
The name Raizel is believed to have its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "rachel," which means "ewe" or "female sheep." The name Raizel is a diminutive or pet form of the name Rachel, which has been a popular name among Jewish people for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rachel is in the Hebrew Bible, where Rachel is described as the beloved wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel is portrayed as a beautiful and loving woman, and her name has since become a symbol of beauty, fertility, and maternal love in Jewish tradition.
The name Raizel is thought to have emerged as a Yiddish variation of the name Rachel, particularly among Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. The addition of the diminutive suffix "-el" was a common practice in Yiddish, and it transformed Rachel into the endearing form Raizel.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Raizel. One of the earliest recorded examples is Raizel Leah, a 16th-century Jewish scholar and poet from Poland. She was known for her contributions to Jewish literature and her expertise in the Torah and Talmudic studies.
Another prominent figure with the name Raizel was Raizel Straus, a 19th-century philanthropist and social activist from Germany. She dedicated her life to improving the living conditions of poor Jewish families and establishing educational institutions for Jewish children.
In the 20th century, Raizel Shain, a Polish-born American artist and Holocaust survivor, gained recognition for her powerful and emotionally charged paintings that depicted the horrors of the Holocaust and the resilience of the human spirit.
Raizel Lichterman, a Russian-born American writer and activist, was also a notable figure who used her writing to advocate for women's rights and social justice causes in the early 20th century.
Raizel Gorbachov, a Soviet-born Israeli politician and diplomat, served as a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and played a crucial role in negotiating peace agreements between Israel and its neighboring countries in the late 20th century.
While the name Raizel may not be as common today as it once was, it remains a cherished name within Jewish communities, carrying with it a rich history, cultural significance, and a connection to the biblical matriarch Rachel.
People
Raizel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raizel 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
Raizel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raizel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raizel 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 206,977 US residents.
Is Raizel a common name?
We classify Raizel as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,697 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raizel most popular?
The single biggest year for Raizel was 2024, when 90 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raizel is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raizel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,135 people with the name Raizel, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,353 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 Raizel 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 Raizel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raizel appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,132 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Raizel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raizel is White at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.0%). 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 Raizel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Raizel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.7% (961 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 Raizel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raizel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Raizel in the SSA data are female. 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 Raizel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raizel 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 Raizel 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 have Raizel as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Raizel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.