Rafał
Around 260,000 Polish men carry it, a name almost everyone knows, yet it's fading fast: just 181 boys got it last year. The root meaning is "god has healed".
Rafał Pronunciation
Rafał is pronounced RAH-fahw (/ˈrafaw/).
What Rafał means
Where Rafał comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Rafał belongs to an archangel. In the older form, Raphael, he appears in scripture as a healer, the one who restores Tobit's sight in the Book of Tobit, and the meaning attached to the name is plain: "God has healed," or in Polish "Bóg uzdrowił." Polish took the longer Raphael and wore it down to something shorter and firmer. Rafał is what remained.
For centuries the name traveled with the archangel. Raphael is counted among the three archangels given names in scripture, alongside Michael and Gabriel, and their shared feast falls on the twenty-ninth of September. A boy named Rafał inherits that association whether he asks for it or not.
The name stays common in Poland today. The pianist Rafał Blechacz won the Chopin Competition in 2005, the first Pole to take it in thirty years. On a school register the name sits without fuss, four letters and a tail. Underneath it the old sense holds: Bóg uzdrowił, God has healed.
When Rafał celebrates name day
Rafał appears 7 times in the Polish name day calendar, 4 of them as a main name, the first on 24 January.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Rafał
1 in 82 men in Poland is named Rafał. 261,152 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #42 among male names.
Rafał's popularity over time
181 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #196 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #42 name among living men, even as it slips to #196 among newborns.
Where parents choose Rafał
Rafał is most popular in Opole, 71% above the national average (83 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Podlaskie (+69%) and Silesian (+44%). It is least common in Holy Cross and West Pomeranian, 45% and 36% below average respectively.
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Opole
+71%1 in 555 babies
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Podlaskie
+69%1 in 562 babies
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Silesian
+44%1 in 662 babies
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Holy Cross
−45%1 in 1,732 babies
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West Pomeranian
−36%1 in 1,481 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−31%1 in 1,381 babies
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Opole+71% 83 born1 in 555 babies+71%
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Podlaskie+69% 117 born1 in 562 babies+69%
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Silesian+44% 344 born1 in 662 babies+44%
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Subcarpathian+31% 166 born1 in 726 babies+31%
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Lublin+26% 136 born1 in 755 babies+26%
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Lesser Poland+15% 275 born1 in 825 babies+15%
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Pomeranian−3% 150 born1 in 982 babies−3%
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Masovian−13% 324 born1 in 1,093 babies−13%
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Łódź−16% 112 born1 in 1,131 babies−16%
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Lower Silesian−17% 137 born1 in 1,147 babies−17%
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Lubusz−20% 42 born1 in 1,182 babies−20%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−28% 83 born1 in 1,318 babies−28%
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Greater Poland−28% 164 born1 in 1,312 babies−28%
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Warmian-Masurian−31% 52 born1 in 1,381 babies−31%
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West Pomeranian−36% 57 born1 in 1,481 babies−36%
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Holy Cross−45% 32 born1 in 1,732 babies−45%
Rafał as a middle name
Rafał is a first name for 261,152 men in Poland and a middle name for another 97,261, a 73/27 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 34th, between Mariusz (98,841) and Dariusz (89,939).
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#32 Władysław100,059
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#33 Mariusz98,841
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#34 Rafał97,261
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#35 Dariusz89,939
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#36 Aleksander88,645