Raffaela
Raffaela was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 756 Americans have been recorded with it between 1898 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Raffaela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Raffaela mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Raffaela is “a female given name from Italian, variant of Raphaela”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Raffaela?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,051, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
34 babies in 1922, the peak
Raffaela peaked in 1922, when 34 girls were given it, #1,399 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | #17,051 | 3.1 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,722 | 3.7 |
| 2009 | 5 | #19,526 | 2.7 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,643 | 3.2 |
| 1993 | 5 | #15,164 | 2.8 |
| 1989 | 5 | #13,919 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 7 | #10,073 | 3.9 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,883 | 3.6 |
| 1976 | 8 | #7,091 | 5.5 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,793 | 3.4 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 7 | #7,216 | 4.8 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,973 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 9 | #5,875 | 5.4 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,744 | 3.4 |
| 1965 | 5 | #7,268 | 2.8 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,295 | 2.5 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,738 | 4.0 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,419 | 2.6 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,515 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 5 | #6,036 | 2.8 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,349 | 6.4 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,127 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,671 | 3.9 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,537 | 3.2 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,430 | 4.6 |
| 1943 | 13 | #2,666 | 9.3 |
| 1942 | 11 | #2,953 | 8.1 |
| 1941 | 5 | #4,930 | 4.1 |
| 1940 | 11 | #2,699 | 9.6 |
| 1939 | 14 | #2,285 | 12.8 |
| 1938 | 9 | #3,131 | 8.2 |
| 1937 | 11 | #2,701 | 10.3 |
| 1936 | 8 | #3,328 | 7.7 |
| 1935 | 9 | #3,112 | 8.6 |
| 1934 | 9 | #3,103 | 8.6 |
| 1933 | 16 | #2,033 | 15.9 |
| 1932 | 15 | #2,215 | 14.1 |
| 1931 | 19 | #1,858 | 17.8 |
| 1930 | 15 | #2,280 | 13.3 |
| 1929 | 12 | #2,701 | 10.7 |
| 1928 | 19 | #2,008 | 16.5 |
| 1927 | 14 | #2,523 | 11.7 |
| 1926 | 21 | #1,918 | 17.7 |
| 1925 | 21 | #1,932 | 17.3 |
| 1924 | 27 | #1,671 | 21.6 |
| 1923 | 22 | #1,887 | 18.2 |
| 1922 | 34 | #1,399 | 28.3 |
| 1921 | 28 | #1,610 | 22.7 |
| 1920 | 23 | #1,800 | 19.2 |
| 1919 | 14 | #2,484 | 12.4 |
| 1918 | 25 | #1,635 | 21.6 |
| 1917 | 29 | #1,397 | 26.8 |
| 1916 | 25 | #1,524 | 23.9 |
| 1915 | 26 | #1,434 | 26.4 |
| 1914 | 17 | #1,650 | 22.3 |
| 1913 | 11 | #2,000 | 17.6 |
| 1912 | 12 | #1,706 | 21.5 |
| 1911 | 9 | #1,768 | 21.5 |
| 1910 | 7 | #2,099 | 17.7 |
| 1909 | 5 | #2,480 | 14.4 |
| 1908 | 9 | #1,521 | 26.9 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,324 | 15.7 |
| 1906 | 6 | #1,911 | 20.3 |
| 1904 | 5 | #2,117 | 18.2 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,790 | 21.5 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,914 | 19.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Raffaela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Raffaela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 66 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Raffaela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Raffaela, and how old are they?
An estimated 181 Americans named Raffaela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (24% of everyone recorded); the median is 65 years old and half are between 50 and 83. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 616 people named Raffaela (615 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 227 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.7 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).
Where are babies named Raffaela born?
The states with the most babies named Raffaela are New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey, with 99% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Massachusetts and New Jersey are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 332 | not ranked | 5.1× |
| Massachusetts | 15 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New Jersey | 10 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Connecticut | 5 | not ranked | 0.5× |
Where Raffaela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Raffaela is most over-represented in New York: since 1910 it was given 5.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Raffaela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 6,043 babies since 1880, Raffaela is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 none of their 116 babies recorded by SSA was a Raffaela (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 Raffaela
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 Raffaela and names like it
- Compare Raffaela and RafaelaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sRaffaela peaked in 1922.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Raffaela since 1910.
- The top names of 1922The year the most babies were named Raffaela.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Raffaela alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with RMost given first.