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Girl · Hebrew
Rachel
Say it: RAY-chul
Meaning
Hebrew Raḥel, 'ewe'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Used by Protestants from the 16th century and very popular in the English-speaking world in the 1970s to 1990s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1980s
In the United States
- 569,291 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1985, about 1 in 105 girls
- 1,285 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
HebrewEarly ChristianEnglishAmericanFrenchSpanishPortugueseItalianGerman
The family of the name
Other spellings: Rachael, Rachelle
| French | Rachel |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Raquel |
| Portuguese | Raquel |
| Italian | Rachele |
| German | Rahel |
| Hungarian | Ráhel |
| Russian | Rakhil |
| Hebrew | Rahel |
Famous bearers
- Rachel, wife of Jacob in Genesis
- Rachel Carson, American biologist and writer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.