Raf
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: Initialism of Royal Air Force, the British RAF
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈɹæf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Raf is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Belgium than in any other country.
- BEBelgium≈1 in 4K(inferred from the name graph)
- EGEgypt≈1 in 55Kas Raef
- NLNetherlands1 in 11K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Raf itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Belgium (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 133 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,900 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Belgium, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Raef in EG Egypt, SA Saudi Arabia, TN Tunisia.
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.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Initialism of Royal Air Force, the British RAF.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
How Raf is read(measured from records)
Raf is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English35%
Initialism of Royal Air Force, the British RAF.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Dutch17%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Raf in Dutch.
- Spanish13%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Raf in Spanish.
- French9.5%
I don't give a fuck!
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Raf counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE Belgium | #740 | ≈2,900 est. | ≈1 in 4K | — | Raf | 92 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 55K | — | Raef | 49 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈1,800 est. | ≈1 in 147K | — | Raf | 45 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 1,540 | 1 in 11K | 1.5K | Raf | 44 |
| SA Saudi Arabia | — | ≈960 est. | ≈1 in 36K | — | Raef | 32 |
| TN Tunisia | — | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 37K | — | Raef | 21 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Raf is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Luxembourgish, second-person singular imperative of rafen
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Czech, a sound that a dog makes (while biting)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, initialism of Reichsarbeitsführer
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In enm, alternative form of reif
as a wordkaikki.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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Raf De La Torreb. 1905FRBritish actor
- Raf Mattiolib. 1936ITItalian actor (1936–1960)
- Raf Lapeireb. 1944BEBelgian footballer
- Raf Lucab. 1947ITItalian actor
- Raf Şakirovb. 1960RURussian journalist
- Raf Coppensb. 1965BEBelgian comedian and cabaret artist (1965-)
- Raf Simonsb. 1968BEBelgian fashion designer (born 1968)
- Raf Reyntjensb. 1975BEBelgian film director
- Raf Rogersactor
- Raf RileyGBproducer
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 26 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 1.5K | #809 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 1.5K | #1,653 |
| NL Netherlands | SVB Kindernamen — annual newborn name frequency (Wayback-recovered) | 2016 | 117 | #144 |
| NL Netherlands | SVB Kindernamen — annual newborn name frequency (Wayback-recovered) | 2017 | 109 | #159 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 7 | #27,806 |
Reference works 3
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Raf mean, and where does it come from?
- Initialism of Royal Air Force, the British RAF. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Raf?
- In the etymology graph, Rafael, Raphael and Raphaël are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Rafaël.
- How do you pronounce Raf?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɹæf/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Raf a male or female name?
- Raf is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Raf have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.9 thousand people named Raf in Belgium, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled raf.
- How common is the name Raf?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 1,540 people named Raf, about 1 in 11 thousand residents.
- How common is Raf compared with other names?
- In Belgium, Raf is the 740th most common given name of 59,589 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Raf?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/rafThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Raf” — the 740th most common given name in Belgium. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.