Ralf
Ralf was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 304 Americans have been recorded with it between 1920 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ralf by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ralf mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Ralf is “a male given name”
Borrowed from English Ralph in the nineteenth century.
/ralf/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ralf?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,769, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
19 babies in 1963, the peak
Ralf peaked in 1963, when 19 boys were given it, #1,881 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #13,769 | 2.9 |
| 2015 | 5 | #13,576 | 2.6 |
| 1994 | 5 | #9,905 | 2.6 |
| 1980 | 5 | #7,041 | 2.8 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,672 | 3.7 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,445 | 3.8 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,106 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,809 | 3.2 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,556 | 3.1 |
| 1971 | 6 | #4,783 | 3.4 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 5 | #5,262 | 2.7 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,296 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 11 | #2,692 | 6.3 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,410 | 2.9 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,394 | 2.8 |
| 1965 | 14 | #2,243 | 7.5 |
| 1964 | 13 | #2,385 | 6.5 |
| 1963 | 19 | #1,881 | 9.4 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,238 | 3.9 |
| 1961 | 10 | #2,852 | 4.7 |
| 1960 | 11 | #2,650 | 5.2 |
| 1959 | 8 | #3,228 | 3.7 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,979 | 4.2 |
| 1957 | 9 | #2,978 | 4.2 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,847 | 2.8 |
| 1955 | 6 | #3,796 | 2.9 |
| 1954 | 8 | #3,117 | 3.9 |
| 1951 | 9 | #2,812 | 4.8 |
| 1945 | 7 | #2,937 | 5.2 |
| 1941 | 5 | #3,893 | 4.1 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,858 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,903 | 4.7 |
| 1931 | 9 | #2,832 | 8.7 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,434 | 4.6 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,861 | 5.6 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,100 | 5.3 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,688 | 4.5 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,333 | 7.2 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,740 | 6.4 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,470 | 7.4 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,831 | 4.5 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,428 | 7.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ralf a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ralf has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 42 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ralf: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ralf, and how old are they?
An estimated 180 Americans named Ralf and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (59% of everyone recorded); the median is 62 years old and half are between 55 and 67. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,483 people named Ralf (4 women and girls, 1,479 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 194 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7.6 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 416,162 babies since 1880, Ralf is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 211 babies recorded by SSA was a Ralf (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.
More about Ralf and names like it
- Compare Ralf and RalphBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sRalf peaked in 1963.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ralf since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Ralf: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1963The year the most babies were named Ralf.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Ralf alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with RMost given first.