Rachel Girl
How popular is Rachel?
#250 girl name in 2025
1,225 baby girls were named Rachel in the US in 2025, making it the 250th most popular girl name.
Rachel popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #250 for girls (▼ 4 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 1,225 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-37% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #167 in 2015, #226 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1985 (16,360 girls) |
| Highest rank | #9 in 1996 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.9% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Rachel counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Rachel family of names ranked #259 for girls in 2025 (#239 the year before), with 1,307 babies in all.
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Rachel is most popular
Babies named Rachel per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- New Jersey: 4.1 per 1,000 (733 girls)
- New York: 4.0 per 1,000 (1,566 girls)
- Pennsylvania: 1.3 per 1,000 (308 girls)
- Utah: 1.2 per 1,000 (101 girls)
- Maryland: 1.0 per 1,000 (107 girls)
Rachel by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,128 | #109 |
| 1890s | 3,279 | #122 |
| 1900s | 3,974 | #135 |
| 1910s | 10,482 | #145 |
| 1920s | 14,199 | #152 |
| 1930s | 12,268 | #156 |
| 1940s | 13,409 | #159 |
| 1950s | 16,775 | #175 |
| 1960s | 26,795 | #69 |
| 1970s | 77,749 | #23 |
| 1980s | 146,675 | #13 |
| 1990s | 149,167 | #9 |
| 2000s | 68,401 | #21 |
| 2010s | 21,076 | #99 |
| 2020s | 7,580 | #226 |
Girl names about as popular as Rachel
Questions
- Is Rachel a boy or girl name?
- Rachel is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Rachel were girls.
- How popular is the name Rachel?
- 1,225 baby girls were named Rachel in the US in 2025, making it the 250th most popular girl name.
- When was Rachel most popular?
- Rachel peaked in 1985, when 16,360 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #9 in 1996.
- How many people are named Rachel?
- 575,748 babies have been named Rachel in the US since 1880. We estimate about 510,790 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 37.
- Where is Rachel most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Rachel was most common in New Jersey, at 4.1 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.