Raphael
Meaning
"God has healed"
Goes by Rafa
The story
Raphael is Hebrew, God has healed, the archangel of healing in Jewish and Christian tradition, and the English form of the name by which Renaissance painter Raffaello Sanzio is known. The American record is patient in a way the ledger respects: about 820 a decade by the 1910s, never gone, never spiking, building through 1,800 in the 1970s, 3,000 in the 1990s, and cresting at 4,700 in the 2010s, with 4,000 so far this decade, nearly all boys, about 24,200 to 320 all-time. Rafael, the Spanish and Portuguese spelling, runs bigger at about 89,900 and climbs its own patient stairs in our records. An angel with a medical bag, a painter with a sainted touch, and a curve with no fever in it anywhere: the healer's name keeps its own pulse steady.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Raphael peaked in the 2020s.
Popularity in Brazil
54,417 people · the #534 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 3,731 · median age 27
Among people named Raphael living in Brazil at the 2022 census, roughly as many were born in the 1980s as in the 1990s, more than in any other decade.
The census also counted 2,253 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Raphael
Most people given the name Raphael in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Raphael deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Raphael 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 Raphael fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Raphael · Nicknames for Raphael · Names of great artists
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