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The first name 
Raphael

Raphael is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

Raphael is a common name for boys!

The name Raphael isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Raphael ranks 512. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 3 were named Raphael. In the entire USA, approximately 16,611 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Raphael. That is 0.00 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Raphael

What does the name 
Raphael mean?

The name Raphael comes from the Hebrew Rafa’el meaning ‘God heals’, ‘rafa’ meaning ‘to heal’ and ‘el’ meaning ‘God’. In Hebrew tradition Raphael is the name of an archangel.

In English-speaking... countries, Raphael was never really common as a given name, in other European countries it was more common.

Raphael has 7 letters 
and begins with an R

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter R is quite common as an initial letter for boys’ names. To be precise, 5.2% of all boys' names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D.

With seven letters, the name Raphael has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Therefore: As 5.2% of all boys' names start with R, this initial letter occurs much more often than all 26 letters on average. And maybe interesting to know: of all the names that begin with an R, Robert is the most common.

Other names with 
R, a, p, h, a, e and l

If you take all the letters in the name Raphael – R, a, p, h, a, e and l – and put them together again, you can form another name, such as Rapheal.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Raphael

If your name is Raphael and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Raphael

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Raphael, you can simply say:

Rocket

Apple

Pig

Hat

Apple

Elephant

Lion

This is how the name Raphael is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Raphael in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Raphael

Raphael

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Raphael

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Raphael is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

R
A
P
H
A
E
L

Have you ever waved the name Raphael

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

R
A
P
H
A
E
L

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Raphael sounds like this: