Rael
Rael is given to both girls and boys: 13 girls and 53 boys were given it in 2025 (#8,235 among girls’ names and #2,529 among boys’, #4,664 among all names counting both); 660 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rael by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rael?
#2,529 among boys’ names, 2025
Rael rose from #10,360 in 2015 to #2,529 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.7 to 31.0 per million.
72 babies in 2024, the peak
Rael peaked in 2024, when 72 babies were given it (61 boys, #2,337 among boys’ names). The 66 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 92% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,235 | 53 | #2,529 |
| 2024 | 11 | #9,424 | 61 | #2,337 |
| 2023 | 7 | #13,148 | 26 | #4,184 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,231 | 46 | #2,819 |
| 2021 | under 5 | 26 | #4,095 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 18 | #5,181 | |
| 2019 | 6 | #15,166 | 19 | #5,106 |
| 2018 | under 5 | 22 | #4,570 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 21 | #4,703 | |
| 2016 | 6 | #15,804 | 6 | #11,799 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #15,975 | 7 | #10,360 |
| 2014 | 6 | #16,087 | 8 | #9,405 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,092 | 10 | #7,956 |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,166 | 6 | #11,918 |
| 2011 | under 5 | 8 | #9,391 | |
| 2010 | 8 | #13,182 | 7 | #10,475 |
| 2009 | 6 | #16,789 | 9 | #8,824 |
| 2008 | 6 | #16,991 | 8 | #9,641 |
| 2007 | 8 | #13,624 | 6 | #12,014 |
| 2006 | under 5 | 13 | #6,372 | |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,506 | 7 | #9,880 |
| 2004 | under 5 | 7 | #9,688 | |
| 2003 | 9 | #11,112 | 10 | #7,105 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,474 | under 5 | |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,799 | 5 | #11,875 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,567 | 5 | #11,714 |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,121 | 7 | #8,497 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,887 | 6 | #9,345 |
| 1995 | 8 | #10,260 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,452 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 6 | #12,933 | 5 | #9,468 |
| 1991 | under 5 | 5 | #9,260 | |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,913 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | under 5 | 7 | #5,938 | |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,799 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 6 | #6,053 | |
| 1979 | under 5 | 8 | #4,737 | |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,249 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Rael a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 660 Americans recorded as Rael, 31% are girls and 69% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rael: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rael, and how old are they?
An estimated 652 Americans named Rael and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 3 and 21. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 660 people named Rael (284 women and girls, 376 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 388 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 96,511 babies since 1880, Rael is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 66 of their 566 babies (12%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Rael
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Rael and names like it
- Compare Rael and RaulBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRael peaked in 2024.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rael since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Rael.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rael alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.