Popularity of the name Rachel, 1880–2025

Rachel was at its most popular in 1985, when 16,360 girls were given the name: about 1 in 110 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #13. In 2025, 1,225 girls were named Rachel, ranking #250. In all, Social Security counts 573,957 girls named Rachel since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 1,791 boys named Rachel.

Peak year

1985

Rank in 1985

#13

Babies in 1985

16,360

Rank in 2025

#250

Total since 1880

573,957

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #167 in 2015 to #250 in 2025: 1,941 girls got it in 2015, and 1,225 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 1990s, when 149,167 girls were named Rachel, #15 for the decade. It ranked #119 in the 1880s and #240 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 166 in 1880 (#109), 379 in 1900 (#153), 1,484 in 1920 (#156), 1,264 in 1940 (#166), 1,792 in 1960 (#198), 11,618 in 1980 (#23), 10,687 in 2000 (#21) and 1,305 in 2020 (#226).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 16,360, in 1985. Its best rank in any year was #9, first reached in 1996.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Rachel, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.