Raydel
Of Latin origin, meaning "little king" or "leader".
Name Census estimates that about 203 living Americans carry the first name Raydel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Raydel today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raydel births was 2016 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raydel. 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.
People living today
203
~ 1 in 1,688,445 Americans
Peak year
2016
17 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,600
Tracked since 1999
Census
Raydel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 517 people with the first name Raydel, which placed it at #20,108 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
#20,108
National first-name rank
People counted
517
517 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
88.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raydel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raydel is Hispanic at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and White (4.8%). 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 Raydel 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 Raydel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino88.6% · 458
- Black or African American5.0% · 26
- White4.8% · 25
- Two or more races1.0% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Raydel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raydel from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 127 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raydel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raydel 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 Raydel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raydels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Raydel
The name Raydel is believed to have its origins in the Spanish language, although its exact etymological roots are uncertain. Some scholars suggest that it may be a combination of the Spanish words "rayo" meaning "ray" or "beam" and "del" meaning "of the," potentially referring to a radiant or luminous quality.
In some regions of Spain, particularly in the southern provinces of Andalusia, the name Raydel or variations like Raidel have been used as a given name for centuries. It's possible that the name was influenced by the Arabic cultures that once ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula, as similar-sounding names can be found in various Arabic dialects.
While there are no definitive historical references to the name Raydel in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is believed to have been in use as a given name in Spain as early as the 16th or 17th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Raydel Fernández, a Spanish soldier who fought in the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule in the late 16th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Raydel, though their fame varied across different regions and time periods. One such figure was Raydel García, a Spanish painter and sculptor active in the early 19th century, known for his religious works and portraits commissioned by the Spanish nobility.
Another individual with the name Raydel was Raydel Hernández, a Cuban baseball player who played for several teams in the Cuban National Series between the 1960s and 1980s. He was considered one of the best pitchers of his era and was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.
In the world of music, there was Raydel Vizcaíno, a Mexican singer and songwriter who gained popularity in the 1970s and 1980s for his romantic ballads and ranchera music. He released several successful albums and toured extensively throughout Latin America.
Raydel Álvarez was a Nicaraguan politician and diplomat who served as the ambassador to the United States during the Sandinista government in the 1980s. He played a crucial role in negotiations between Nicaragua and the United States during that tumultuous period.
Finally, Raydel Díaz was a Venezuelan writer and poet who published several collections of poetry and short stories in the latter half of the 20th century. His works often explored themes of love, loss, and the human experience, earning him critical acclaim in literary circles across Latin America.
People
Raydel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raydel 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
Raydel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raydel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 203 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raydel 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 1,688,445 US residents.
Is Raydel a common name?
We classify Raydel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 205 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raydel most popular?
The single biggest year for Raydel was 2016, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raydel is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raydel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 517 people with the name Raydel, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,108 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 Raydel 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 Raydel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raydel leans strongly male. 494 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 20 female bearers (3.9%). 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 Raydel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raydel is Hispanic at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and White (4.8%). 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 Raydel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Raydel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.6% (458 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 Raydel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raydel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Raydel 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 Raydel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raydel 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 Raydel 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 Raydel?
You can see how many people have the name Raydel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.