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 [ 2 syll. rac-hel, ra-ch-el ] The girl name Rachel is pronounced REYCHahL KEY. Rachel's language of origin is Hebrew, and it is used largely in the English, French, German, and Yiddish 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. The name Rachel is used to a great extent; it has 44 variations that are used in both English and foreign languages. Variations of the name used in English include Racheal, Rachela, Rachele (also used in Italian), Rachelle (also used in French and Italian), Raeshelle, Rahshel, Raschel, Rashael, Rashel (also used in Russian), Raychael, and Ruchelle. Other English forms include the short forms Rach, Rachie, Rae, Ray, and Shelley, the pet forms Rachy, Raea, Raye, Relkel, Shell, Shellie, and Shelly, and the variant spellings Rachael, Rachal, Rachyl, Raechel, Raechul, and Raychel. Foreign variations of Rachel include the Hawaiian Lahela, the Hawaiian Leikela, the Tongan Lesieli, the Russian Rachil, the German Rahel, the Hawaiian Rahela, the Slavic Rahil, the Russian and Arabic Raja, the Scandinavian Rakel, the Scandinavian Rakelle, the Russian Rakhil, the Russian Rakhila, the Portuguese and Spanish Raquel, and the Yiddish Ruchel. Another foreign variant is the pet form Ruchie (Hebrew). 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 2008, it ranked at #75 with a usage of 0.195%, 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 2008. 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 Rachal, the English, French, and Italian Rachelle, the English Raechel, the English Raechul, the English Rahshel, the Scandinavian Rakel, the Russian Rakhil, the Portuguese and Spanish Raquel, the English Raschel, the English and Russian Rashel, the English Raychael, the English Raychel, the Yiddish Rayzil, the Yiddish Razil, the Hebrew Razilee, the Yiddish Reisel, the German Resel, the German Resli, and the English Rickel. Details of famous persons named Rachel: 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)"   |
