Raechel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "ewe" or "little lamb".
Name Census estimates that about 2,157 living Americans carry the first name Raechel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Raechel today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raechel births was 1991 (114 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raechel. 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 Raechel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 158,903 Americans
Peak year
1991
114 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2017 SSA rank
#17,851
Tracked since 1916
Census
Raechel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,109 people with the first name Raechel, which placed it at #7,283 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
#7,283
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,109 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raechel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raechel is White at 76.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Raechel 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 Raechel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.1% · 1,604
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 172
- Two or more races6.1% · 129
- Black or African American5.8% · 122
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 18
Popularity
Raechel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raechel from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 821 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
Raechel 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 Raechel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raechels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, Michigan, Illinois recorded the most babies named Raechel, while Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Raechel
The name Raechel is a variant spelling of the Hebrew name Rachel, which derives from the Biblical Hebrew word רָחֵל (rachel), meaning "ewe" or "female sheep". It is an ancient Semitic name that has been in use for thousands of years, with its origins tracing back to the Hebrew Bible, where Rachel was the beloved wife of the patriarch Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Rachel appears in the Book of Genesis, which is believed to have been written between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. Rachel is described as beautiful and deeply loved by her husband Jacob, who worked for her father Laban for 14 years to earn her hand in marriage.
Throughout history, the name Rachel has been borne by several notable figures. One of the earliest was Rachel of Mainz, a Jewish woman who was martyred during the Rhineland massacres of 1096 CE, at the start of the First Crusade. She is revered as a Jewish martyr for refusing to convert to Christianity.
Another famous Rachel was Rachel Félix (1821-1858), a French actress and courtesan who was known for her striking beauty and influential social circle. She was the subject of numerous works of art and literature during her lifetime.
In the realm of literature, the name Rachel is associated with Rachel Vinrace, the protagonist of Virginia Woolf's 1915 novel "The Voyage Out". The novel explores themes of identity, societal expectations, and the constraints faced by women in the early 20th century.
One of the most renowned figures to bear the name Raechel is Raechel Ray, the American television personality, author, and businesswoman, born in 1968. She is best known for her popular cooking shows, including "30 Minute Meals" and "Rachael Ray", which have helped to promote her culinary brand and products.
In the field of music, Raechel Yamagata is an American singer-songwriter born in 1977. She is known for her introspective and poetic songwriting, and has released several critically acclaimed albums, including "Happenstance" (2004) and "Tightrope Walker" (2016).
People
Raechel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raechel 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
Raechel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raechel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,157 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raechel 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 158,903 US residents.
Is Raechel a common name?
We classify Raechel as "Rare". It ranks above 94% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,276 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raechel most popular?
The single biggest year for Raechel was 1991, when 114 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raechel is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raechel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,109 people with the name Raechel, or 0.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,283 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 Raechel 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 Raechel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raechel appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,102 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 Raechel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raechel is White at 76.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Raechel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Raechel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.1% (1,604 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 Raechel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raechel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Raechel 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 Raechel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raechel 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 Raechel 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 Raechel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.