Rachel
Meaning
ewe
Famously borne by Rachel Atherton, the five-time downhill mountain bike world champion. Famously borne by Rachel Carson, biologist whose book Silent Spring helped launch the modern environmental movement.
The story
Rachel comes from the Hebrew Rachel, meaning ewe. In Genesis she is Jacob's beloved wife, the woman for whom he agrees to work seven years and then, after being tricked into marrying her sister Leah first, another seven. The name remained common among Jewish families through the Middle Ages and entered wider English Christian use after the Protestant Reformation. The American curve stays steady through the early twentieth century, begins climbing in the 1960s, and reaches its high point in the 1980s before easing through the 1990s and beyond. Friends arrived in 1994 with Rachel Green after the peak, so the character may have helped keep the name familiar rather than creating its rise. Rachel is now a modern classic with a visible generation, biblical depth, and a story about patience that almost everyone recognizes.
Rachel around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 8 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew rachel "ewe", the biblical shepherdess
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Rachel peaked in the 1980s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
11,845 people · the #1,520 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 17,241 · median age 39
Among people named Rachel living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 161 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Rachel
Most people given the name Rachel in the United States were born between 1970 and 1999. The Rachel you meet today is most often in her 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Rachel deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Rachel truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Rachel fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Rachel travels
Jewish American · a beloved matriarch name, a steady classic since the mid-20th century
Korean American · ewe (Old Testament matriarch, wife of Jacob); a steady Korean American church name across generations
Chinese American · a steady biblical classic across generations
Hebrew · ewe, female sheep
Keep exploring
Jewish American baby names · Korean American baby names · Hebrew baby names · Chinese American baby names
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