Rafe Boy
How popular is Rafe?
#1,165 boy name in 2025
179 baby boys were named Rafe in the US in 2025, making it the 1165th most popular boy name.
Rafe popularity over time
| Rank in 2025 | #1,165 for boys (▲ 143 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 179 boys |
| 10-year trend | Rising fast (+116% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #1,804 in 2015, #2,024 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 2025 (179 boys) |
| Highest rank | #809 in 1880 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 100% boys, 0% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Rafe counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Rafe family of names ranked #867 for boys in 2025 (#967 the year before), with 252 babies in all.
| Spelling | Boys in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Rafe | 179 | 71% |
| Raife | 52 | 21% |
| Raif | 16 | 6% |
| Raf | 5 | 2% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Rafe is most popular
Babies named Rafe per 1,000 boys born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
Rafe by decade
| Decade | Baby boys | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 11 | #809 |
| 1890s | 6 | #953 |
| 1910s | 38 | #2,881 |
| 1920s | 40 | #2,948 |
| 1930s | 30 | #3,003 |
| 1940s | 18 | #2,963 |
| 1950s | 36 | #2,579 |
| 1960s | 174 | #1,572 |
| 1970s | 122 | #1,988 |
| 1980s | 160 | #2,110 |
| 1990s | 154 | #2,859 |
| 2000s | 625 | #1,329 |
| 2010s | 783 | #1,641 |
| 2020s | 738 | #1,165 |
Boy names about as popular as Rafe
Questions
- Is Rafe a boy or girl name?
- Rafe is mostly a boy name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Rafe were boys.
- How popular is the name Rafe?
- 179 baby boys were named Rafe in the US in 2025, making it the 1165th most popular boy name.
- When was Rafe most popular?
- Rafe peaked in 2025, when 179 boys were given the name. Its highest rank was #809 in 1880.
- How many people are named Rafe?
- 2,935 babies have been named Rafe in the US since 1880. We estimate about 2,723 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 14.
- Where is Rafe most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Rafe was most common in Utah, at 0.5 of every 1,000 boys born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.