Rafe
A short form of the given name Ralph, meaning "counsel" or "wolf."
Name Census estimates that about 2,556 living Americans carry the first name Rafe. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rafe today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rafe births was 2024 (148 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rafe. 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 Rafe with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 134,098 Americans
Peak year
2024
148 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,315
Tracked since 1880
Census
Rafe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,999 people with the first name Rafe, which placed it at #7,579 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
#7,579
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
1,999 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rafe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafe is White at 80.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Rafe 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 Rafe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.3% · 1,606
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 143
- Two or more races5.4% · 107
- Black or African American4.6% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 42
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 9
Popularity
Rafe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rafe from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 783 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rafe remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rafe 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 Rafe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rafes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Texas, California, Utah recorded the most babies named Rafe, while Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rafe
The name Rafe is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse name Radulfr or its Old English cognate Ræđwulf. These names are composed of the elements "rad" meaning counsel or advice, and "wulf" meaning wolf. The name essentially means "counsel wolf" or "wise wolf."
The name evolved over time through various spellings and pronunciations, including Ralf, Rauf, and Ralph. The modern English form Ralph emerged as the standardized spelling by the late Middle Ages. Rafe is considered a diminutive or nickname form of Ralph.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Radulfus de Diceto, an English chronicler and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, who lived from around 1120 to 1202. In the 12th century, the name was also borne by Ralf de Gael, a Norman nobleman and landowner in England.
In literature, the name appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where one of the characters is named Rafe. This work, written in the late 14th century, reflects the popularity of the name during the Middle Ages.
Notable historical figures with the name Rafe include Rafe Sadler (c. 1507–1587), an English statesman and diplomat during the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Another Rafe was Sir Rafe Lane (c. 1530–1603), an English merchant, explorer, and colonial governor of Virginia in the late 16th century.
Rafe Blundeville (c. 1390–1460) was an English knight and landowner who fought in the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses. Rafe Fitch (c. 1550–1611) was an English merchant and one of the first Englishmen to travel to India and Southeast Asia in the late 16th century.
During the English Civil War in the 17th century, Rafe Sadler (1619–1660) was a prominent Parliamentarian officer who fought against the Royalists. He was later executed for his role in the regicide of King Charles I.
People
Rafe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rafe 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
Rafe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rafe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,556 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rafe 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 134,098 US residents.
Is Rafe a common name?
We classify Rafe as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,754 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rafe most popular?
The single biggest year for Rafe was 2024, when 148 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rafe is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rafe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,999 people with the name Rafe, or 0.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,579 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 Rafe 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 Rafe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rafe appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,002 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Rafe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafe is White at 80.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Rafe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rafe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.3% (1,606 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 Rafe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rafe a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rafe 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 Rafe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rafe 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 Rafe 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 Rafe?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.