Rafel
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has healed".
Name Census estimates that about 108 living Americans carry the first name Rafel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rafel today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rafel births was 1970 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rafel. 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 Rafel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
108
~ 1 in 3,173,651 Americans
Peak year
1970
10 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2013 SSA rank
#13,598
Tracked since 1922
Census
Rafel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 864 people with the first name Rafel, which placed it at #13,832 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
#13,832
National first-name rank
People counted
864
864 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
78.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rafel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafel is Hispanic at 78.8%. The next largest groups are White (9.5%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Rafel 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 Rafel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino78.8% · 681
- White9.5% · 82
- Black or African American9.0% · 78
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 13
- Two or more races0.7% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
Popularity
Rafel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rafel from the 1920s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 40 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rafel 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 Rafel 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 Rafel
The name Rafel is derived from the Hebrew name Rafael, which means "God has healed" or "God's healing power". The name has its roots in the biblical story of the Archangel Raphael, one of the seven archangels in Jewish and Christian tradition.
The earliest recorded use of the name can be found in the Book of Tobit, an apocryphal book of the Hebrew Bible, believed to have been written around the 4th century BCE. In this book, Raphael is depicted as a guiding and healing angel who assists the protagonist, Tobit, in his journey.
During the Middle Ages, the name Rafel gained popularity among Christians, particularly in regions with strong Jewish and Arabic influences, such as Spain and parts of the Mediterranean. One notable figure from this period is Rafel d'Arles, a 13th-century troubadour and poet from the south of France, known for his love songs and contributions to Occitan literature.
In the Renaissance period, the name Rafel was often associated with artists and intellectuals. One famous bearer of the name was the Italian painter and architect, Raffaello Santi, better known as Raphael (1483-1520), considered one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.
Another notable figure is Rafel Nadal (1786-1853), a Spanish scholar and linguist who played a significant role in the development of the Catalan language and literature. His work on the standardization of Catalan orthography and grammar was instrumental in preserving the language during a time of cultural suppression.
In the 20th century, the name Rafel gained popularity in various cultures, including Spanish-speaking countries. One notable bearer of the name is Rafel Nadal, the famous Spanish professional tennis player (born in 1986), who has won numerous Grand Slam titles and is considered one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
People
Rafel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rafel 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
Rafel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rafel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 108 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rafel 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 3,173,651 US residents.
Is Rafel a common name?
We classify Rafel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 125 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rafel most popular?
The single biggest year for Rafel was 1970, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rafel is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rafel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 864 people with the name Rafel, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,832 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 Rafel 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 Rafel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rafel leans strongly male. 841 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 20 female bearers (2.3%). 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 Rafel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rafel is Hispanic at 78.8%. The next largest groups are White (9.5%) and Black (9.0%). 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 Rafel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Rafel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.8% (681 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 Rafel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rafel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rafel 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 Rafel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rafel 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 Rafel 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 Rafel as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.