Raphael
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals".
Name Census estimates that about 19,975 living Americans carry the first name Raphael. It sits at #420 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Raphael today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raphael births was 2024 (749 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raphael. 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 Raphael with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Raphael is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 323 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,159 Americans
Peak year
2024
749 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#420
Tracked since 1882
Census
Raphael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,519 people with the first name Raphael, which placed it at #1,575 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
#1,575
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,519 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
32.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raphael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raphael is White at 32.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.0%) and Black (23.9%). 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 Raphael 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 Raphael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White32.7% · 6,702
- Hispanic or Latino31.0% · 6,371
- Black or African American23.9% · 4,907
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.9% · 1,629
- Two or more races3.8% · 772
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 138
Gender
Gender distribution for Raphael
Raphael leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 323 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Raphael as a male name
- Ranked #420 in 2024
- 744 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (744 births)
Raphael as a female name
- Ranked #17,082 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1979 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raphael leans strongly male. 20,286 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 232 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Raphael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raphael from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,718 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raphael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raphael 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 Raphael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raphaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Raphael, while South Dakota, Rhode Island, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 412 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Raphael
The name Raphael has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "Rapha" meaning "to heal" and "El" meaning "God". Thus, Raphael translates to "God has healed" or "God's healer".
Raphael is one of the seven archangels mentioned in the Catholic Bible, specifically in the Book of Tobit. In this book, Raphael is described as a healer and a guide to the protagonist Tobiah. He helps Tobiah on a journey and cures his father's blindness. This association with healing and guidance has contributed to the name's enduring popularity.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Raphael can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the 3rd century BC. The scrolls contain references to the archangel Raphael, indicating the name's usage during that time period.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Raphael. One of the most famous was the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), renowned for his masterpieces such as "The School of Athens" and "The Sistine Madonna". His artistic genius and contributions to the High Renaissance period have made him an iconic figure.
Another prominent Raphael was the Spanish painter Raphael Urbino (1638-1703), known for his religious and mythological works. His paintings can be found in various churches and museums across Spain and Europe.
In the realm of literature, Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525-1580) was an English chronicler whose "Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland" served as a significant source for playwrights like William Shakespeare.
The name Raphael has also been associated with religious figures, such as Saint Raphael of Brooklyn (1860-1915), a Syrian-American Catholic bishop who played a crucial role in the establishment of the Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States.
Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish lawyer and linguist, is remembered for coining the term "genocide" and his tireless efforts to establish it as an international crime, contributing significantly to the development of human rights laws.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Raphael, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human experience.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Raphael
People
Raphael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raphael 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
Raphael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raphael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,975 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raphael 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 17,159 US residents.
Is Raphael a common name?
We classify Raphael as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,762 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raphael most popular?
The single biggest year for Raphael was 2024, when 749 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raphael is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raphael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,519 people with the name Raphael, or 6.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,575 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 Raphael 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 Raphael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raphael leans strongly male. 20,286 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 232 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Raphael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raphael is White at 32.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (31.0%) and Black (23.9%). 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 Raphael most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Raphael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.7% (6,702 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 Raphael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raphael a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Raphael 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 Raphael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raphael 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 Raphael 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 common is the name Raphael?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Raphael on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.