Rafa
Rafa was given to 17 boys in 2025, #5,555 among boys’ names; 205 Americans have been recorded with it since 1998 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rafa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rafa mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rafa is “a diminutive of the male given name Raphael, variant of Rafe.”
Also “a diminutive of the female given name Raphaela, variant of Raffa.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rafa?
#5,555 among boys’ names, 2025
Rafa rose from #10,361 in 2015 to #5,555 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.7 to 10.0 per million.
27 babies in 2023, the peak
Rafa peaked in 2023, when 27 babies were given it (20 boys, #5,015 among boys’ names). The 17 births of 2025 are 63% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 17 | #5,555 | |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,878 | 17 | #5,597 |
| 2023 | 7 | #13,150 | 20 | #5,015 |
| 2022 | under 5 | 19 | #5,170 | |
| 2021 | 10 | #10,141 | 10 | #8,016 |
| 2020 | under 5 | 8 | #9,346 | |
| 2019 | 5 | #17,420 | 10 | #8,068 |
| 2018 | under 5 | 8 | #9,460 | |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,856 | under 5 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 5 | #13,714 |
Every recorded year (17)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | under 5 | 7 | #10,361 | |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,167 | 9 | #8,703 |
| 2011 | under 5 | 8 | #9,392 | |
| 2010 | 6 | #16,491 | under 5 | |
| 2007 | 6 | #17,113 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 8 | #12,122 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 6 | #13,709 | 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 Rafa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 205 Americans recorded as Rafa, 33% are girls and 67% boys. In 2025 it went to 17 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rafa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rafa, and how old are they?
An estimated 203 Americans named Rafa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 3 and 11. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 691 people named Rafa (168 women and girls, 523 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 93 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Rafa rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 7 names spelled alike, given to 5,345 babies since 1880, Rafa is the sixth most given (3.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 17 of their 332 babies (5.1%), the fifth 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 Rafa
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 Rafa and names like it
- Compare Rafa and RafeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRafa peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rafa since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Rafa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rafa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.