Rephael
A name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has healed".
Name Census estimates that about 69 living Americans carry the first name Rephael. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rephael today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rephael births was 2004 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rephael. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rephael. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
69
~ 1 in 4,967,454 Americans
Peak year
2004
7 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,992
Tracked since 1992
Popularity
Rephael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rephael from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 24 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rephael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rephael 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 Rephael 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 Rephael
The name Rephael has its origins in Hebrew and is a variant spelling of the name Raphael, which means "God has healed" or "God heals." The earliest known references to this name can be traced back to the Book of Tobit, an ancient Jewish text written sometime between the 6th and 2nd century BCE.
In the Book of Tobit, Raphael is one of the seven archangels who stand before the throne of God. He plays a significant role in the narrative, helping the protagonist Tobias on his journey and aiding him in healing his father's blindness. The name Raphael later appeared in other religious texts, including the Judeo-Christian scriptures and the Islamic tradition, where it is spelled as Israfil.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rephael can be found in the works of the 11th-century Jewish philosopher and physician, Solomon ibn Gabirol, who wrote under the name Avicebron. Gabirol was born in Malaga, Spain, in 1021 CE and is considered a prominent figure in the development of medieval Jewish philosophy.
Another notable historical figure with the name Rephael was Rephael Hayyim Isaac Carregal, a 17th-century Sephardic Jewish author and scholar. He was born in Amsterdam in 1654 and is best known for his work "Torath Leshon Arami," a treatise on the Aramaic language.
In the 18th century, Rephael Mendes de Sola was a prominent Jewish leader and community organizer in London. He was born in 1722 and played a crucial role in establishing the Bevis Marks Synagogue, one of the oldest synagogues in the United Kingdom.
Rephael Arié, born in 1828 in Livorno, Italy, was a noted Jewish scholar and writer who contributed significantly to the study of Hebrew literature and Jewish history in the 19th century.
In more recent times, Rephael Weisman was an Israeli artist and sculptor who lived from 1921 to 2005. He is best known for his large-scale public sculptures and his contributions to the development of modern Israeli art.
People
Rephael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rephael 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
Rephael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rephael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 69 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rephael 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 4,967,454 US residents.
Is Rephael a common name?
We classify Rephael as "Very Rare". It ranks above 59.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 70 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rephael most popular?
The single biggest year for Rephael was 2004, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rephael is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Rephael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rephael a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rephael 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 Rephael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rephael 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 Rephael 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have Rephael as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Rephael, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.