Rafi
Rafi was given to 43 boys in 2025, #2,922 among boys’ names; 739 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rafi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rafi mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Rafi is “a diminutive of the female given name Rafaela”
/ˈrafi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rafi?
#2,922 among boys’ names, 2025
Rafi rose from #5,228 in 2015 to #2,922 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 9.4 to 25.2 per million.
43 babies in 2025, the peak
Rafi peaked in 2025, when 43 boys were given it, #2,922 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 38 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #2,922 | 25.2 |
| 2024 | 38 | #3,201 | 22.1 |
| 2023 | 23 | #4,575 | 13.4 |
| 2022 | 29 | #3,845 | 16.6 |
| 2021 | 23 | #4,455 | 13.1 |
| 2020 | 26 | #3,995 | 15.1 |
| 2019 | 23 | #4,440 | 12.8 |
| 2018 | 24 | #4,313 | 13.2 |
| 2017 | 22 | #4,556 | 11.9 |
| 2016 | 15 | #5,980 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #5,228 | 9.4 |
| 2014 | 23 | #4,361 | 12.0 |
| 2013 | 11 | #7,430 | 5.8 |
| 2012 | 19 | #4,996 | 10.0 |
| 2011 | 13 | #6,496 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 14 | #6,289 | 7.3 |
| 2009 | 17 | #5,487 | 8.6 |
| 2008 | 19 | #5,014 | 9.3 |
| 2007 | 21 | #4,607 | 10.1 |
| 2006 | 18 | #5,014 | 8.8 |
| 2005 | 13 | #6,133 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 15 | #5,424 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 17 | #4,756 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 14 | #5,323 | 7.2 |
| 2001 | 9 | #7,367 | 4.6 |
| 2000 | 6 | #10,025 | 3.1 |
| 1999 | 14 | #4,961 | 7.3 |
| 1998 | 11 | #5,735 | 5.8 |
| 1997 | 10 | #5,986 | 5.3 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,759 | 3.7 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,804 | 8.9 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,556 | 3.6 |
| 1993 | 8 | #6,672 | 4.1 |
| 1992 | 11 | #5,158 | 5.5 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,994 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,285 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 8 | #6,080 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,598 | 4.2 |
| 1987 | 11 | #4,169 | 5.9 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,549 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,327 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 9 | #4,462 | 5.0 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,813 | 4.5 |
| 1982 | 12 | #3,635 | 6.6 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,838 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,229 | 4.1 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,920 | 4.3 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,981 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 10 | #3,651 | 6.4 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,295 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 9 | #3,759 | 5.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rafi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rafi has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 51 years of records.
Girls and boys named Rafi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rafi, and how old are they?
An estimated 722 Americans named Rafi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 6 and 29. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,491 people named Rafi (36 women and girls, 1,455 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 548 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 5,272 babies since 1880, Rafi is the third most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 314 babies (14%), again the third most given.
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 Rafi
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 Rafi and names like it
- Compare Rafi and RafeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRafi peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rafi since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Rafi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Rafi.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rafi alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.