Rafal
Barely a hundred people in Poland carry this spelling, and newborns are rarer still: most Poles will never meet a Rafal. From Hebrew, "god has healed", a close cousin of Rafael.
Rafal Pronunciation
Rafal is pronounced RAH-fahl (/ˈrafal/).
What Rafal means
Where Rafal comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Rafał comes from Hebrew, from Refael, which joins the divine name to a verb for healing and means "God has healed." In the Book of Tobit the archangel Raphael walks the road in disguise and cures an old man's blindness. That account tied the name to healing long before it settled into Polish.
Polish kept two forms in play. The Latinized Rafael stands beside the homegrown Rafał, and both soften to Rafi among friends and family.
One bearer gives the name a Polish anchor. Rafał Kalinowski, a Carmelite born in 1835, was canonized in 1991, and his feast falls on 20 November. Plenty of men named Rafał keep their imieniny on that day.
Picture a class register. Rafał sits above Remigiusz, read out without a stumble. The meaning underneath has not moved: bóg uzdrowił, God has healed.
How many people are named Rafal
1 in 192308 men in Poland is named Rafal. 113 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3202 among male names.
Rafal's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Rafal as a middle name
Rafal is a first name for 113 men in Poland and a middle name for another 171, a 40/60 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 527th, between Ivo (171) and Armand (170).
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#525 Dominique171
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#526 Ivo171
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#527 Rafal171
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#528 Armand170
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#529 Cesar170