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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

RachelIn Hebrew: רחל · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: רָחֵלRomanization: rakhél

Rachel (Hebrew: רחל) is a girl's name of biblical origin. 59,191 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 697 girls and ranked #17. Its peak year was 1951, with 1,482 babies.

People in Israel
59,191
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
697
rank #17
Peak year
1951
1,482 babies
USA, 2025
1,225
rank #250

Writing and saying Rachel

In Hebrew letters the name is רחל, read right to left. Rachel is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "rakhél" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Rachel
  • a female given name, equivalent to English Rachel
From Proto-Semitic *raḫil- (“ewe”). Cognate with Aramaic רַחְלָא (raḥlā) (absolutive: רְחֵל (rəḥēl)), Arabic رَخِل (raḵil) (also رِخْل (riḵl)).

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Rachel by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Rachel: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Rachel in English-speaking countries

Rachel in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20251,225#2501985 (16,360)
United Kingdom2025121#3871997 (2,860)
England and Wales2025106#3941997 (2,120)
Scotland202510#3241993 (555)
Northern Ireland20255#2901997 (223)
Ireland202524#1891997 (543)
British Columbia202319#1561994 (179)
Alberta202524#1711996 (146)
Quebec202537#1471996 (175)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Rachel has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Rachel

How do you write Rachel in Hebrew?

Rachel is written רחל in Hebrew (with vowel points: רָחֵל). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "rakhél".

How many people in Israel are named Rachel?

59,191 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name רחל: 59,180 women and 11 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

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

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 100.0% of the people named רחל are women.

What does the name Rachel mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Rachel" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic *raḫil- (“ewe”). Cognate with Aramaic רַחְלָא (raḥlā) (absolutive: רְחֵל (rəḥēl)), Arabic رَخِل (raḵil) (also رِخْل (riḵl)).

Is Rachel used outside Israel?

The name Rachel appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 1,225 girls were given it in 2025 (#250), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 121 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.