Rachel
- Pronunciation
- [Ra-chel]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Lamb
- Origin
- German
About the Name Rachel
Rachel descends from the Hebrew Rachel, meaning "ewe" — referring to a young female sheep, with the inherent register of innocence, gentleness, and pastoral imagery. The biblical Rachel is the favored wife of the patriarch Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin — one of the four matriarchs of Israel. The Jacob-and-Rachel romance (Jacob worked seven years for Rachel's father Laban, then married Leah by deception, then worked another seven years for Rachel) is one of the great love-stories of the Hebrew Bible.
The name has been continuously used in Jewish tradition for over three thousand years. The Rachel narrative includes her tragic death in childbirth with Benjamin, and her tomb on the road to Bethlehem became one of the major pilgrimage sites for Jewish women seeking fertility. Christian English-language adoption came primarily through Puritan-era Old Testament revival.
Notable bearers include 19th-century French actress Rachel Felix (1821–1858, the French tragedian who reshaped European theater); 19th-century American writer Rachel Lyman Field (Newbery Medal winner); American journalist Rachel Carson (1907–1964, whose 1962 book Silent Spring launched the modern American environmental movement); and the fictional Rachel Green of Friends (1994–2004), played by Jennifer Aniston, whose "Rachel haircut" became one of the most-imitated cultural moments of 1990s American style.
Rachel held a US top-25 girls' rank from 1968 through 2003 — over three decades of top-tier American popularity. The name has receded since 2010 but remains in steady use. The name's appeal is its layered biblical depth combined with two short syllables — religiously anchored, instantly readable, and tonal warmth distinctive to Hebrew-derived names. Common nicknames Rach, Rachie, and the rare Ray each carry distinct registers; international forms include Raquel (Spanish/Portuguese), Rachele (Italian), Rachael (alternate English spelling), Rohel (Yiddish), and the original Hebrew Rachel.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Rachel
US Popularity History (1968–2025)
Annual US births named Rachel by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1985 with 16,361 girls named Rachel (girl rank #13 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #250 for girls (1,225 US births). That's 237 places below its 1985 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Rachel Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Rachel the strongest states are New York, New Jersey, Alaska.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #36 | 2,880 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #53 | 1,130 |
| 3 | Alaska | #132 | 19 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #161 | 634 |
| 5 | Utah | #179 | 241 |
| 6 | South Dakota | #187 | 26 |
| 7 | Montana | #206 | 17 |
| 8 | Hawaii | #207 | 19 |
| 9 | Maryland | #227 | 246 |
| 10 | Ohio | #254 | 423 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Rachel in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Rachel
3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Rachel.
- Rachel Hunter — Model (1969)
- Rachel Maddow — TV Show Host (1973)
- Rachel McAdams — Movie Actress (1978)
Looking for names like Rachel?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Rachel to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Rachel against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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