Raquel
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Innocent
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Raquel
Raquel is the Spanish and Portuguese form of Rachel, the Hebrew name meaning ewe — the female sheep. In the Hebrew Bible, Rachel is the beloved wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, one of the most prominent matriarchs in the Genesis narrative. The genuine meaning of the name is the animal term ewe, which in ancient Near Eastern tradition carried associations of gentle beauty and preciousness. Raquel carries all of Rachel's biblical depth in a Romance-language form that has been standard across Spain, Portugal, and Latin America for centuries.
In the SSA top-1000, Raquel first entered in 2000 at its best rank of #342, accumulating 11,558 top-1000 births across its chart span. The name has shown strong staying power, remaining in the top-1000 through 2023: #936 with 275 births in 2020, #909 with 296 births in 2021, and #908 with 294 births in 2023. No variants are recorded for this spelling.
Raquel's longevity reflects the deep roots of the name in Hispanic American communities, where it has been a constant presence for generations. Its three-syllable elegance — the soft Ra- opening, the clear -quel close — gives it a warm musicality that translates easily across linguistic backgrounds. For parents within the Spanish-speaking tradition, Raquel carries both a venerable biblical pedigree and a sound that is unmistakably and beautifully Iberian.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Raquel
US Popularity History (2000–2023)
Annual US births named Raquel by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 900 girls named Raquel (girl rank #342 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2023, ranked #908 for girls (294 US births). That's 566 places below its 2000 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 Raquel 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 Raquel the strongest states are New Mexico, Maryland, Arizona.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #358 | 18 |
| 2 | Maryland | #625 | 83 |
| 3 | Arizona | #649 | 86 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #687 | 94 |
| 5 | New York | #690 | 229 |
| 6 | California | #707 | 453 |
| 7 | Utah | #723 | 17 |
| 8 | Florida | #750 | 134 |
| 9 | Texas | #784 | 356 |
| 10 | Washington | #817 | 33 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | #1,074 | 22 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #988 | 22 |
| 3 | Colorado | #946 | 16 |
| 4 | Wisconsin | #917 | 16 |
| 5 | Georgia | #881 | 35 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #881 | 57 |
| 7 | Virginia | #840 | 40 |
| 8 | Washington | #817 | 33 |
| 9 | Texas | #784 | 356 |
| 10 | Florida | #750 | 134 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Raquel in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Raquel?
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 Raquel to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Raquel against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).