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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: HebrewIn Israel: hardly given today

RafiIn Hebrew: רפי · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: רָפִיRomanization: rafi

Rafi (Hebrew: רפי) is a boy's name of Hebrew origin. 2,370 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Its peak year was 1973, with 89 babies.

People in Israel
2,370
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
—
not in the list
Peak year
1973
89 babies
USA, 2025
43
rank #2,884

Writing and saying Rafi

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

Meaning and origin

  • a diminutive of the male given name רָפָאֵל (rafa'él)
From רָפָאֵל + י־ (“diminutive suffix”).

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

Rafi by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys 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).

Rafi: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Rafi in English-speaking countries

Rafi in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202543#2,8842025 (43)
United Kingdom202579#5392025 (79)
England and Wales202576#5072025 (76)
Scotland20253#7622024 (5)
Alberta20252#1,5712017 (2)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Rafi has every year and the other spellings.

Questions about Rafi

How do you write Rafi in Hebrew?

Rafi is written רפי in Hebrew (with vowel points: רָפִי). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "rafi".

How many people in Israel are named Rafi?

2,370 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name רפי: 0 women and 2,370 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 Rafi a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named רפי are men.

What does the name Rafi mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a diminutive of the male given name רָפָאֵל (rafa'él)" Etymology: From רָפָאֵל + י־ (“diminutive suffix”).

Is Rafi used outside Israel?

The name Rafi appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 43 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,884), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 79 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.