Rachel - Origin and Meaning of the name

The girl name Rachel [ 2 syll. rac-hel, ra-ch-el ] is pronounced REYCHahL ^KEY. Rachel's language of origin is Hebrew, and it is used largely in the English, French, and German languages. Biblical name derived literally from the element rachel which means 'ewe'. The name was borne in the Old Testament of the Bible by the second wife of Jacob, also the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. The name was mainly used by Jews in the medieval period, and it later became more widespread among Christians and Muslims while retaining his popularity as a Jewish name. It was adopted by English Puritans in the 17th century, and later saw a revival in the 19th century. In Scotland, the name has been used as an Anglicized form of Raghnaid or Raoghnald.

Variations of the name include the English Rachael, the English Racheal, the Italian Rachele, the English and Italian Rachelle, the German Rahel, the Russian Raja, the Scandinavian Rakel, and the Spanish Raquel. Other variants of Rachel include the short forms Rach (English), Rachie (English), Rae (English), Ray (English), and Shelley (English).

Rachel is popular as a baby name for girls. The name jumped in popularity from the 1940s up to the 1980s. At the peak of its usage in 1985, 0.886% of baby girls were given the name Rachel. It ranked at #13 then. The baby name has since experienced a drop in frequency. In 2007, it ranked at #60 with a usage of 0.227%, but it was nonetheless the most popular out of all girl names in its group. 6 times more girls were named Rachel than the 2nd most popular name, the English Rachael, in 2007. The name Rachel has mostly been a girl name, although it has also been given to boys in the past century. In 1989, the name Rachel was given to 151 times more girls than boys.

Baby names that sound like Rachel include the English Rachael, the English and Italian Rachelle, the Scandinavian Rakel, the Spanish Raquel, the German Resli, the English Rochelle, the English Racheal, the German Regula, the French Rosalie, the Italian Rosella, the Italian Rossella, the Italian Rosalia, and the Hungarian Rozalia.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Rachel: R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; CH as in "cheese (CH.IY.Z)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)"

Details of famous persons named Rachel:
Actress Rachel McAdams, born 7 October 1976, London, Ontario, Canada.
Actress Rachel Weisz, born 7 March 1971, London, England.
Biologist Rachel Carson, born 27 May 1907 - 14 April 1964, Springdale, Pennsylvania.
Model Rachel Hunter, born 9 September 1969, Auckland, New Zealand.

Popularity Trend
for Rachel
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Rachel
in 2007