Raul
Meaning
“Spanish form of Ralph, from Germanic 'rad' (counsel) and 'wulf' (wolf)”
The story
Raul is the Spanish form of Ralph, from Germanic rad and wulf, counsel and wolf, a warrior compound that the Romance languages smoothed into two open syllables a toddler can say. In the US record from the 1900s, it climbed steadily with each successive generation and holds a long plateau from the 1990s through the 2010s, the profile of a true pan-Hispanic classic rather than a passing fashion, with the accented Raúl remaining the full-dress form across the Spanish-speaking world. It has eased only slightly. Raul's quiet strength is generational reliability: it never spiked, never crashed, and every era of Latino America has kept it within arm's reach, counsel and wolf traveling together under a perfectly calm surface. Names that behave this steadily rarely get headlines, and rarely need them; reliability is its own kind of distinction.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Raul peaked in the 1990s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
64,694 people · the #473 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 3,135 · median age 25
Among people named Raul living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 5,482 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Raul
People given the name Raul in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Raul deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Raul 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 Raul fits with your family’s names and surname.
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