Rafe is a distinctive choice, ranked #201 in 2025. Your child is likely to be the only Rafe in their class.
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UK Rank 2025
#201
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About the Name Rafe
Rafe is at its highest recorded position in the UK, #201 in 2025 โ the strongest showing it has had. The name has been a consistent presence in UK records since 1996.
Rafe is fairly common in the UK, so your child is very likely to be the only Rafe in their class.
โญ Famous People Named Rafe
Raja Rafe โ Raja Rafe is a Syrian footballer who plays as a striker for Taliya SC, which competes in the Syrian Premier League, and is a member of the Syria national football team.
Rafe Stefanini โ Rafe Stefanini is an old-time banjo player, fiddler, guitarist, singer, teacher, violin maker and restorer.
Rafe Mazzeo โ Rafe Roys Mazzeo is an American mathematician working in differential geometry, microlocal analysis, and partial differential equations.
Biographical summaries are shortened from Wikipedia and are used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; those summaries remain available under that same licence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the name Rafe
Unlikely. With around 255 UK babies named Rafe per year, your child will almost certainly be the only Rafe in their class, and possibly the only one in the whole school.
Rafe is at its highest recorded position โ #201 in 2025, with 255 births. In 2020 it ranked #269.
Rafe is a distinctive choice sitting outside the mainstream UK top names. Parents choosing less common names often find their children appreciate the individuality as they grow up, rarely needing to add an initial to distinguish themselves.
Notable people named Rafe include: Raja Rafe, Rafe Stefanini and Rafe Mazzeo. Short summaries for each appear below.
Rafe does not appear in the US top 1,000 baby names, making it a distinctively British choice โ your child is unlikely to encounter American Rafes in the wild.
255
UK babies named Rafe (2025)
< 1
Expected classmates with this name (class of 28)
~0.1
In a school of 600
↑ 68 places
Rank change (last 5 years)
🏫 Who else is in the room?
In a typical UK class of 28, highlighted children share the name Rafe
Almost certainly the only Rafe in the class
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UK Popularity (1996–2025)
Rank and birth count · ONS official data
No US data available for this name
✨ Similar names to Rafe
Names with a similar style — each with their own classroom story
Raja Rafe is a Syrian footballer who plays as a striker for Taliya SC, which competes in the Syrian Premier League, and is a member of the Syria national football team.
In Hebrew orthography the rafe or raphe (Hebrew: ืจึธืคึถื, pronounced [สaหfe], meaning "weak, limp") is a diacritic (โจโึฟโโฉ), a subtle horizontal overbar placed above certain letters to indicate that they are to be pronounced as fricatives.