Rafaela

Where Rafaela comes from

Rafaela hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1887
    First appearance
    #1,036 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1903
    Peak, #789
    19 babies named Rafaela — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1904
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,251.
  4. 1906
    Rafaela Aparicio born
    Spanish actress
  5. 1992
    Rafaela Silva born
    Brazilian judoka
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Rafaela Silva · Brazilian judoka, born 1992
  • Rafaela Aparicio · Spanish actress, 1906–1996
  • Rafaela Ottiano · Italian actress, 1888–1942
  • Rafaela Porras y Ayllón · cofounder of Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1850–1925
  • Rafaela Ybarra de Vilallonga · Spanish beatified woman, 1843–1900

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.