Rachel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "ewe" or "female sheep".
Name Census estimates that about 491,323 living Americans carry the first name Rachel. It sits at #247 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rachel today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rachel births was 1985 (16,438 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rachel. 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 Rachel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Rachel is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,791 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1990s, recent registration numbers for Rachel have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
491K
~ 1 in 698 Americans
Peak year
1985
16,438 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2018 SSA rank
#247
Tracked since 1880
Census
Rachel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 493,720 people with the first name Rachel, which placed it at #90 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
#90
National first-name rank
People counted
494K
493,720 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
163.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rachel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rachel is White at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.3%) and Black (4.7%). 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 Rachel 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 Rachel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.1% · 385,771
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 45,907
- Black or African American4.7% · 23,038
- Two or more races3.8% · 18,570
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 17,628
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2,806
Gender
Gender distribution for Rachel
Out of the 574,486 babies given the name Rachel since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Rachel as a male name
- Ranked #13,636 in 2018
- 5 male births in 2018
- Peak: 1989 (106 births)
Rachel as a female name
- Ranked #247 in 2024
- 1,285 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (16,361 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rachel appears almost entirely female. Of the 493,726 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Rachel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rachel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 149,424 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rachel 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 Rachel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 2,128 | 2,128 |
| 1890s | 5 | 3,279 | 3,284 |
| 1900s | 5 | 3,974 | 3,979 |
| 1910s | 44 | 10,482 | 10,526 |
| 1920s | 75 | 14,199 | 14,274 |
| 1930s | 98 | 12,268 | 12,366 |
| 1940s | 55 | 13,409 | 13,464 |
| 1950s | 74 | 16,776 | 16,850 |
| 1960s | 86 | 26,794 | 26,880 |
| 1970s | 291 | 77,750 | 78,041 |
| 1980s | 661 | 146,678 | 147,339 |
| 1990s | 260 | 149,164 | 149,424 |
| 2000s | 120 | 68,382 | 68,502 |
| 2010s | 17 | 21,067 | 21,084 |
| 2020s | 0 | 6,345 | 6,345 |
Geography
Where Rachels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Rachel, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,026 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rachel
The name Rachel has its roots in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the biblical Hebrew name Rāchēl, which likely originated from the Hebrew word rāchēl, meaning "ewe" or "female sheep". The name's meaning is often interpreted as "one with the strength of God" or "one with the vision of God".
Rachel is a prominent name in the Hebrew Bible, where it is borne by the beloved wife of the patriarch Jacob. She is described as beautiful and the object of Jacob's love, for whom he worked for seven years to earn her hand in marriage. The story of Rachel's struggle with infertility and her eventual giving birth to Joseph and Benjamin is a significant narrative in the Book of Genesis.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rachel can be found in the Book of Genesis, which is traditionally dated to around the 6th or 5th century BCE. The name's appearance in this ancient text contributed to its widespread use among Jewish communities throughout history.
In the Middle Ages, the name Rachel gained popularity among Christians, particularly in Western Europe. One notable bearer of the name was Rachel de Verduyn (c. 1315-1350), a Flemish mystic and Beguine who was known for her spiritual writings.
During the Renaissance period, the name Rachel was famously borne by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), a Dutch artist celebrated for her exquisite still-life paintings of flowers. Her works were highly sought after by patrons across Europe and are now housed in prestigious collections worldwide.
In the 19th century, the name Rachel gained renewed prominence with the celebrated French actress Rachel Félix (1821-1858), whose real name was Élisa Raquel Félix. She was renowned for her performances in classical tragedies and was considered one of the greatest tragic actresses of her time.
Another notable Rachel from this period was Rachel Crothers (1878-1958), an American playwright and theater director who was a pioneer in the development of American drama. Her plays often explored themes of feminism and social issues, and she was a influential figure in the theater community.
As the name Rachel has deep roots in various cultures and time periods, it has been borne by numerous other historical figures throughout the ages, contributing to its enduring popularity and rich cultural significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rachel
People
Rachel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rachel 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
Rachel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rachel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 491,323 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rachel 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 698 US residents.
Is Rachel a common name?
We classify Rachel as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 574,486 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rachel most popular?
The single biggest year for Rachel was 1985, when 16,438 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rachel is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rachel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 493,720 people with the name Rachel, or 163.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #90 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 Rachel 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 Rachel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rachel appears almost entirely female. Of the 493,726 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Rachel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rachel is White at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.3%) and Black (4.7%). 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 Rachel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rachel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.1% (385,771 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 Rachel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rachel a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Rachel 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 Rachel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rachel 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 Rachel 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 Americans are named Rachel?
See how many people have the name Rachel on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.