Boy · Germanic, through Norman French
Ralph
Say it: RALF
Meaning
From Germanic Radulf: rad 'counsel' and wulf 'wolf'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Very common in Norman England; the traditional upper-class pronunciation is 'Rafe'.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1920s
In the United States
- 414,896 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1921, about 1 in 124 boys
- 179 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Rafe, Raulf, Radulf
| German | Ralf |
|---|---|
| French | Raoul |
| Spanish | Raúl |
| Latin | Radulfus |
Famous bearers
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist
- Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer
- Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Domesday Book (1086) source
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Medieval European charters and records
- 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.