Raelee
A female name of English origin meaning "meadow or field."
Name Census estimates that about 1,832 living Americans carry the first name Raelee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Raelee today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raelee births was 2015 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raelee. 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
- • Raelee is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 187,093 Americans
Peak year
2015
104 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,678
Tracked since 1969
Census
Raelee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,399 people with the first name Raelee, which placed it at #9,789 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
#9,789
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,399 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raelee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raelee is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Raelee 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 Raelee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 1,137
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 97
- Two or more races5.9% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 38
- Black or African American2.1% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 14
Popularity
Raelee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raelee from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 819 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raelee remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raelee 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 Raelee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raelees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio recorded the most babies named Raelee, while Georgia, Idaho, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Raelee
The name Raelee is a modern English name that emerged in the late 20th century. It is an invented name, likely a combination of the names Rachel and Lee, or a variant spelling of the name Rayleigh. The name does not have a direct linguistic origin or cultural significance.
While the name Raelee itself does not have a long historical record, its components can be traced back to various sources. The name Rachel is a biblical name of Hebrew origin, derived from the word "rachel," meaning "ewe" or "female sheep." Rachel was the wife of Jacob in the Old Testament and a significant figure in the book of Genesis.
The name Lee, on the other hand, has its roots in Old English and is derived from the word "leah," meaning "meadow" or "clearing." It was originally used as a surname and later adopted as a given name for both males and females.
As an invented name, Raelee does not have any notable historical references or appearances in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, its components, Rachel and Lee, have been used as given names throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rachel can be found in the Bible, referring to the wife of Jacob, who lived around the 18th century BCE. In more recent history, notable individuals named Rachel include Rachel Carson (1907-1964), an American marine biologist and conservationist, and Rachel Weisz (born 1970), an English actress.
The name Lee has been used by various historical figures, including Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), a prominent American military officer during the American Civil War, and Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), the first Prime Minister of Singapore.
While the name Raelee itself does not have a long historical record, its combination of components from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds reflects the creativity and diversity of modern naming practices.
People
Raelee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raelee 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
Raelee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raelee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,832 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raelee 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 187,093 US residents.
Is Raelee a common name?
We classify Raelee as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,854 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raelee most popular?
The single biggest year for Raelee was 2015, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raelee is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raelee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,399 people with the name Raelee, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,789 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 Raelee 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 Raelee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raelee appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,400 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Raelee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raelee is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Raelee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Raelee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (1,137 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 Raelee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raelee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Raelee 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 Raelee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raelee 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 Raelee 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 Raelee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.