Name Generator

How popular is the name Rachel?

Births per year, rank history and how many Rachels are alive today.

Rachel (female), once a common girls' name, is now an uncommon choice for new babies in England and Wales, ranked 394th in 2025 with 106 given the name. This spelling of the name peaked in 1984, when around 6,100 babies were given the name, the 9th most popular that year. Rachel fell out of the published rankings after 1904 and returned in 1964, a classic revival pattern. Numbers have been stable in recent years. At least 180,000 babies have been named Rachel in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Rachel is one spelling of a name also recorded as Rachael; the combined figures below cover every spelling. Common short forms of Rachel include Rae.

Across all spellings of the name, the Rachel you are most likely to meet is around 42 years old. Half of all Rachels born in England and Wales are between 35 and 51, and there are at least 160,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 40% chance that at least one of them will be called Rachel.

How many babies are named Rachel each year?

Includes all spellings: Rachel, Rachael. Figures before 1996 are estimates.

Where does the Rachel spelling rank?

Where does the Rachael spelling rank?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.