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.
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 Rafał is most popular
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 Świętokrzyskie and West Pomeranian, 45% and 36% below average respectively.
-
Opole83 boys born+71%
-
Podlaskie117 boys born+69%
-
Silesian344 boys born+44%
-
Subcarpathian166 boys born+31%
-
Lublin136 boys born+26%
-
Lesser Poland275 boys born+15%
-
Pomeranian150 boys born−3%
-
Masovian324 boys born−13%
-
Łódź112 boys born−16%
-
Lower Silesian137 boys born−17%
-
Lubusz42 boys born−20%
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian83 boys born−28%
-
Greater Poland164 boys born−28%
-
Warmian-Masurian52 boys born−31%
-
West Pomeranian57 boys born−36%
-
Świętokrzyskie32 boys born−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).
-
32
100,059Władysław
-
33
98,841Mariusz
-
3497,261Rafał
-
35
89,939Dariusz
-
36
88,645Aleksander