Raphaela
Raphaela was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,698 among girls’ names; 499 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Raphaela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Raphaela mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Raphaela is “a female given name, masculine equivalent Raphael”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Raphaela?
#11,698 among girls’ names, 2025
Raphaela fell from #11,631 in 2015 to #11,698 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born held at 5.0 per million.
19 babies in 2016, the peak
Raphaela peaked in 2016, when 19 girls were given it, #6,614 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 42% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,698 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 12 | #8,834 | 7.4 |
| 2023 | 12 | #8,863 | 7.5 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,236 | 6.1 |
| 2021 | 15 | #7,556 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 14 | #7,867 | 8.7 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,182 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 12 | #9,033 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 14 | #8,190 | 8.1 |
| 2016 | 19 | #6,614 | 10.7 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 9 | #11,631 | 5.0 |
| 2014 | 10 | #10,766 | 5.6 |
| 2013 | 13 | #8,935 | 7.4 |
| 2012 | 10 | #11,065 | 5.7 |
| 2011 | 11 | #10,241 | 6.3 |
| 2010 | 9 | #12,039 | 5.1 |
| 2009 | 13 | #9,280 | 7.1 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,415 | 5.3 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,655 | 5.7 |
| 2006 | 5 | #19,363 | 2.6 |
| 2005 | 6 | #15,985 | 3.2 |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,509 | 5.4 |
| 2003 | 8 | #12,130 | 4.4 |
| 2002 | 8 | #11,933 | 4.5 |
| 2001 | 12 | #8,610 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 12 | #8,422 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 5 | #16,268 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,109 | 5.7 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,776 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 7 | #11,494 | 4.0 |
| 1995 | 13 | #6,933 | 7.4 |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,464 | 3.9 |
| 1993 | 6 | #13,019 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 5 | #14,943 | 2.7 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,644 | 2.6 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,426 | 4.3 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,195 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,892 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,296 | 4.1 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,024 | 4.1 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,810 | 3.0 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,722 | 4.4 |
| 1978 | 7 | #8,305 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,890 | 4.8 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,963 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,403 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,980 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 6 | #8,064 | 3.6 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,235 | 3.6 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,376 | 2.6 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,797 | 2.5 |
| 1954 | 7 | #5,034 | 3.6 |
| 1931 | 6 | #4,246 | 5.6 |
| 1930 | 5 | #5,107 | 4.4 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,288 | 4.3 |
| 1924 | 5 | #5,730 | 4.0 |
| 1923 | 7 | #4,290 | 5.8 |
| 1922 | 6 | #4,904 | 5.0 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,717 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Raphaela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Raphaela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 59 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Raphaela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Raphaela, and how old are they?
An estimated 448 Americans named Raphaela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 10 and 34. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 670 people named Raphaela (667 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 388 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 5,215 babies since 1880, Raphaela is the third most given (9.6% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 97 babies (8.2%), 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 Raphaela
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 Raphaela and names like it
- Compare Raphaela and RafaelaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sRaphaela peaked in 2016.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Raphaela since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Raphaela: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Raphaela.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Raphaela alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.