Rachel - Meaning of Rachel

What does Rachel mean?

Pronounce
Rachel

[ 2 syll. rac-hel, ra-ch-el ] The baby girl name Rachel is also used as a boy name, though it is far more popular for girls. It is pronounced REY-CHahL in English or Rae-SHEHL in French †. Rachel's origin is Hebrew, and its use, English, French, German, and Yiddish. It is a biblical name derived literally from the word rachel with the meaning '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.

What are the Variant Forms of Rachel?

The name Rachel is used to a great extent; it has 71 forms that are used in English and foreign languages. English forms of the name include Lahela (used in Hawaiian as well), Racheal, Rachela (used in Polish as well), Rachelann, Rachelanne, Rachelce, Rachele (used in French and Italian as well), Racheli, Racheline, Rachell, Rachella, Rachelle (used in French and Italian as well), Racquel (used in French as well), Raeann, Raechell, Raeshelle, Rahshel, Raiche, Raichel, Raisa (used in Russian and Yiddish as well), Raquel (used in French, Portuguese, and Spanish as well), Raquela, Raquella, Raquelle, Raschel, Rashael, Rashel (used in Russian as well), Rashell, Rashelle, and Rashka. Other English forms include the shortenings Rach, Rachie, Rae (used in Hebrew as well), Ray, and Shelley, the familiar forms Rachy, Raea, Raye, Relkel, Shell, Shellie, and Shelly, and the spelling variants Rachael, Rachal, Rachyl, Raechel, Raechul, and Raychel.

Forms used in foreign languages include Leikela (Hawaiian), Lesieli (Tongan), Rachil (Russian), Raghnaid (Gaelic), Rahel (German, Hungarian, and Polish), Rahela (Hawaiian), Rahil (Slavic), Raja (Russian), Rakel (Finnish and Scandinavian), Rakelle (Scandinavian), Rakhil (Russian), Rakhila (Russian), Raonaid (Gaelic), and Ruchel (Yiddish). The familiar form Ruchie (Hebrew) is another foreign variant.

See also the related categories, medieval, yiddish, puritans, english, hebrew, mother, ewe, biblical, wife (sister), french, anglicized, and german.

Rachel is an all-time favorite. Today it is still popular as a baby girl name, but not as much as it was previously. The name grew in popularity from the 1940s up to the 1980s. At the height of its usage in 1985, 0.886% of baby girls were named Rachel. It was #13 in rank then. The baby name has substantially dropped in popularity since then. In 2018, it ranked at #198 with a usage of only 0.084%, but it was nevertheless the most popular within all girl names in its family. Rachel was used 5 times more than the next ranked name, Raquel, in 2018. Rachel has primarily been a baby girl name in the last century. In 1989, 151 times more baby girls than boys were given the name Rachel.

Baby names that sound like Rachel include Raichael, Raschelle, Rashele, Rashelle, Raakel, Rachael, Rachal, Rachalle, Rachele, Rachelle, Rachil, Rachyl, Rackel, Racquel, Racquell, Raechel, Raechele, Raechell, Raechelle, and Raechul.

† Pronunciation for Rachel: R as in "race (R.EY.S)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; CH as in "cheese (CH.IY.Z)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)" ; L as in "lay (L.EY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; SH as in "she (SH.IY)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)"

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.