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Meaning of the nameRafael

Rafael is a masculine name of Hebrew origin, from Rāfāʾēl, which the Brazilian names dictionary translates as 'God has healed', the name of an archangel.

Meaning

“God has healed”

Source: Wiktionary: Rafael · Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Rafael · Behind the Name: Raphael

More names that mean God

People (2022)
873,321
Rank in Brazil
#15
Median age
27 years
2010 Census
821,638
people

Rafael in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Rafael, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1990s (262,099 people).

5,606 women 867,715 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Rafael is most common

States with the highest share of people named Rafael in the population, in the 2022 Census.

  1. Distrito Federal 0.574%
  2. São Paulo 0.549%
  3. Paraná 0.513%
  4. Rio Grande do Sul 0.509%
  5. Rio de Janeiro 0.506%
All states
StatePeople% of population
São Paulo243,7420.549%
Minas Gerais97,2630.474%
Rio de Janeiro81,2220.506%
Paraná58,6820.513%
Rio Grande do Sul55,4010.509%
Bahia47,7880.338%
Santa Catarina38,1570.501%
Goiás29,2350.414%
Pernambuco28,1180.310%
Pará23,8490.294%
Ceará23,1260.263%
Maranhão17,2390.254%
Distrito Federal16,1630.574%
Espírito Santo16,0540.419%
Mato Grosso14,0740.385%
Paraíba12,4030.312%
Mato Grosso do Sul12,0940.439%
Amazonas10,2670.261%
Rio Grande do Norte8,9900.272%
Piauí8,2650.253%
Alagoas8,1370.260%
Sergipe7,1090.322%
Rondônia5,2000.329%
Tocantins4,5500.301%
Amapá2,3560.321%
Acre2,0950.252%
Roraima1,7420.274%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Rafael

Wiktionary traces Rafael from Latin Raphael and Greek Ῥᾱφᾱήλ to Biblical Hebrew רָפָאֵל, formed from rāp̄ā and ʾēl. Behind the Name explains these elements as 'to heal' and 'God' and translates the name as 'God heals'; the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil) gives 'God has healed' and links it to the archangel Rafael. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 873,321 people named Rafael, with a median age of 27. Raphael and Rafhael are spelling variants.

This is the spelling with F and the most recorded in the group.

Other spellings of Rafael

SpellingPeople (2022)
Rafael873,321
Raphael54,417
Rafhael2,612

Sources

  1. Wiktionary: Rafael · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  2. Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Rafael · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · meaning
  3. Behind the Name: Raphael · behindthename.com · meaning

Questions about the name Rafael

What does the name Rafael mean?

Rafael means “God has healed”, according to Wiktionary and Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil.

How many people are named Rafael in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 873,321 people with the first name Rafael, which ranks it number 15 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1990s.

Is Rafael a boy's or a girl's name?

Rafael is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 5,606 women and 867,715 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Rafael?

Rafael is a name of Hebrew origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Rafael most common?

Proportionally, in Distrito Federal: 0.574% of the state's population is named Rafael (16,163 people), according to the 2022 Census.

What are the other spellings of Rafael?

Raphael and Rafhael. IBGE counts each spelling separately.

Names that also mean God

See all

More names of Hebrew origin

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Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Rafael with a source. See the methodology.