Rachella
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "ewe" or "female lamb".
Name Census estimates that about 82 living Americans carry the first name Rachella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rachella today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rachella births was 1974 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rachella. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rachella. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
82
~ 1 in 4,179,931 Americans
Peak year
1974
9 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1993 SSA rank
#11,462
Tracked since 1966
Census
Rachella in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 156 people with the first name Rachella, which placed it at #44,397 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
#44,397
National first-name rank
People counted
156
156 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rachella
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rachella is White at 54.5%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Rachella 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 Rachella at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.5% · 85
- Black or African American31.4% · 49
- Two or more races5.8% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 2
Popularity
Rachella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rachella from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 52 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rachella 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 Rachella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rachella
The name Rachella is derived from the Hebrew name Rachel, which means "ewe" or "female lamb". It has its origins in ancient Semitic languages and can be traced back to the biblical figure Rachel, the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin in the Book of Genesis.
The name Rachella is an Italian and Spanish variant of Rachel, with the addition of the diminutive suffix "-ella". This suffix was commonly used in these languages to create affectionate or diminutive forms of names, giving Rachella a more endearing and feminine quality.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rachella can be found in the 13th century, in the writings of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. In his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, Dante mentions a character named Rachella di Foligno, who is believed to have been a real person from the Italian city of Foligno.
In the 15th century, a notable figure named Rachella Guglielmi was a renowned Italian artist and illuminator of manuscripts. She was active in the city of Bologna and is known for her intricate and beautiful illuminations in various religious and secular texts.
Another notable Rachella in history is Rachella Ferrarese, a 16th-century Italian musician and composer. She was a prominent figure in the musical circles of Ferrara, Italy, and her compositions for lute and voice were highly regarded during her time.
In the 17th century, Rachella Battaglini was an Italian philosopher and writer who made significant contributions to the field of natural philosophy. She was admired for her intellect and wrote several treatises on various scientific subjects.
Rachella Caracciolo, born in 1630, was a famous Italian painter of the Baroque period. She was known for her religious paintings and her work can be found in various churches and galleries throughout Italy.
While the name Rachella has its roots in ancient Hebrew and has been used throughout history in various forms, it has maintained a strong connection to its Italian and Spanish origins, where it has been particularly popular over the centuries.
People
Rachella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rachella 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
Rachella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rachella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 82 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rachella 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 4,179,931 US residents.
Is Rachella a common name?
We classify Rachella as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 91 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rachella most popular?
The single biggest year for Rachella was 1974, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rachella is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rachella in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 156 people with the name Rachella, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,397 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 Rachella 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 Rachella?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rachella leans strongly female. 157 people counted with this name were female (96.9%), compared with 5 male bearers (3.1%). 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 Rachella?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rachella is White at 54.5%. The next largest groups are Black (31.4%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Rachella most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rachella in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.5% (85 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 Rachella in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rachella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rachella 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 Rachella still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rachella 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 Rachella 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 the name Rachella?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.