Raheel
An Arabic masculine name meaning "slender" or "thin".
Name Census estimates that about 324 living Americans carry the first name Raheel. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Raheel today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raheel births was 2016 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raheel. 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 Raheel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
324
~ 1 in 1,057,884 Americans
Peak year
2016
19 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2021 SSA rank
#10,066
Tracked since 1982
Census
Raheel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 712 people with the first name Raheel, which placed it at #15,985 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
#15,985
National first-name rank
People counted
712
712 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
79.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raheel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raheel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 79.2%. The next largest groups are White (10.3%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Raheel 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 Raheel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander79.2% · 564
- White10.3% · 73
- Two or more races5.1% · 36
- Black or African American4.1% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Raheel
Raheel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 330 total registrations, 256 (77.6%) were male and 74 (22.4%) were female.
Raheel as a male name
- Ranked #13,615 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 2009 (12 births)
Raheel as a female name
- Ranked #10,066 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raheel leans strongly male. 580 people counted with this name were male (82.0%), compared with 127 female bearers (18.0%).
Popularity
Raheel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raheel from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 93 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raheel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raheel 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 Raheel 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 Raheel
The name Raheel is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language. It is derived from the word "raheel," which means "traveler" or "one who travels." The name can be traced back to the early days of Islam and the spread of the Arabic language and culture across various regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Raheel can be found in historical texts from the 7th century AD, during the time of the Islamic conquests. It is said that Raheel was the name of a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, who played a significant role in the early Muslim community.
In the centuries that followed, the name Raheel gained popularity among Muslim communities across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia. It was particularly prevalent in areas where Arabic was the predominant language or had a strong cultural influence.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Raheel. One of the most famous was Raheel Sharif (1956-2022), a former four-star general and the 16th Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He served in this role from 2013 to 2016 and was widely respected for his leadership and contributions to the country's armed forces.
Another prominent figure with the name Raheel was Raheel Raza (born 1950), a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, author, and human rights activist. She has been a vocal advocate for women's rights, secularism, and countering extremism, and has received numerous awards for her work.
In the realm of academia, Raheel Qamar (born 1964) is a notable Pakistani physicist and academic. He is currently serving as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Peshawar and has made significant contributions to the fields of theoretical and mathematical physics.
The name Raheel has also been associated with sports, with Raheel Siddique (born 1984) being a former Pakistani cricketer who played for the national team in the early 2000s.
Lastly, Raheel Sharif (born 1958), a different individual from the former army chief, is a Pakistani-American writer and academic. He is the author of several books on Islam and has taught at various universities in the United States.
While the name Raheel has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended cultural boundaries and can be found among diverse communities around the world today.
People
Raheel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raheel 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
Raheel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raheel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 324 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raheel 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 1,057,884 US residents.
Is Raheel a common name?
We classify Raheel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 330 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raheel most popular?
The single biggest year for Raheel was 2016, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raheel 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 Raheel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 712 people with the name Raheel, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,985 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 Raheel 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 Raheel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raheel leans strongly male. 580 people counted with this name were male (82.0%), compared with 127 female bearers (18.0%). 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 Raheel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raheel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 79.2%. The next largest groups are White (10.3%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Raheel most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Raheel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.2% (564 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 Raheel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raheel a male name?
Yes, 77.6% of people registered as Raheel 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 Raheel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raheel 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 Raheel 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 Raheel?
You can see how many people have the name Raheel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.