Rafail

Locally spelled Raphael in FR France, ES Spain, US United States, Рафаэль in RU Russia, Rafael in EC Ecuador and Рафаель in FI Finland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Rafail is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Räfail

• Greek given name6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, Cyprus, United Kingdom, France

  Also written Rafaī́l, Rafáil, Rafaíl, Rafaīl, Ραφαιλ

• Spanish given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Russia, Mexico, Philippines

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Rafaïl

• French given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Belgium, United States, Russia

  Also written Rafaïl, Räfäïl

33 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Rafail is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Russian, de repha'el, Dieu guérit. Fête : 8 (21) novembre. Raphaël est son équivalent français. Fête : 29 septembre. 111

  as a name·Russian Names

• In Scottish Gaelic, raffle

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Raphael Popovb. 1830BGBulgarian priest
• Rafail Levitskyb. 1847RURussian painter (1844-1937)
• Rafail Brusilovskyb. 1894UARussian writer (1894-1971)
• Rafael Kaprelyanb. 1909AZnot in their usual namemerited test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1909-1984)
• Rafail Perelshtejnb. 1909UASoviet film director (1909-1978)
• Rafail Belkinb. 1922RUSoviet criminalist (1922–2001)
• Raimond Turkoniakb. 1949USnot in their usual nameUkrainian Greek Catholic bishop
• Rafail Ostrovskyb. 1963USAmerican cryptographer
• Rafail Mamasb. 2001CYCypriot association football player
• Vasileios Rafail Kiossesb. 2002GRbadminton player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Rafail mean, and where does it come from?

"God rested." Russianization of Raphael. Recorded by A Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996).

What are other forms of the name Rafail?

In the etymology graph, Rafael, Raphael and Raphaël are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Rafail?

A machine transcription gives /ɹəfeɪl/ (IPA) for Russian.

Is Rafail a male or female name?

Rafail is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: United States (Census Bureau, 2020).

In which country does Rafail have the most bearers?

In Brazil, the national register counted about 873 thousand people named Rafael, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Rafail?

In Brazil, the national register counted 873,321 people named Rafael in 2022, about 1 in 242 residents.

How common is Rafail compared with other names?

In France, Rafail is the 109th most common given name of 754,146 given names recorded there.