Rafel
Rafel was last recorded in 2013, when 5 babies were given it; 125 Americans have been recorded with it between 1922 and 2013 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rafel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rafel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,593, in 2013; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
10 babies in 1970, the peak
Rafel peaked in 1970, when 10 boys were given it, #3,227 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 5 | #13,593 | 2.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #10,232 | 3.1 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,431 | 2.7 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,261 | 2.5 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,865 | 2.9 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,668 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 5 | #8,211 | 2.6 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,862 | 4.4 |
| 1983 | 5 | #7,040 | 2.8 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,406 | 5.0 |
Every recorded year (20)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 7 | #5,369 | 3.9 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,529 | 3.0 |
| 1975 | 7 | #4,665 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,838 | 3.7 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,475 | 2.8 |
| 1970 | 10 | #3,227 | 5.4 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,864 | 2.8 |
| 1968 | 9 | #3,046 | 5.2 |
| 1930 | 6 | #3,908 | 5.5 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,821 | 4.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rafel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rafel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 20 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Rafel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rafel, and how old are they?
An estimated 105 Americans named Rafel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (84% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 37 and 54. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 861 people named Rafel (20 women and girls, 841 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 108 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8.0 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 91,570 babies since 1880, Rafel is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 1,648 babies recorded by SSA was a Rafel (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Rafel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1920-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Christoper | 3,161 | |
| Chistopher | 1,446 | |
| Christpher | 1,304 | |
| Chirstopher | 1,051 | |
| Christoher | 1,094 | |
| Chadd | 2,456 |
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 Rafel and names like it
- Compare Rafel and RafaelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sRafel peaked in 1970.
- The top names of 1970The year the most babies were named Rafel.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Rafel alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with RMost given first.