Raoul
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from Germanic *rāth- 'counsel' + *wulf- 'wolf'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ʁaul/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Raoul is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Cameroon than in any other country, where it is the 89th most common given name.
- CMCameroon≈1 in 1.3K(inferred from the name graph)
- BEBelgium≈1 in 7.2K
- FRFrance≈1 in 9.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Cameroon (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 289 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.3K (inferred from the name graph)
≈21,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Cameroon, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from Germanic *rāth- 'counsel' + *wulf- 'wolf'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Raoul 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM Cameroon | #89 | ≈21,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.3K | — | Raoul | 29 |
| CN China | — | ≈8,900 est. | ≈1 in 157K | — | Raoul | 6 |
| FR France | #796 | ≈7,400 est. | ≈1 in 9.2K | 31K | Raoul | 289 |
| US United States | — | 2,515 | 1 in 132K | 2.5K | Raoul | 222 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 26K | 31 | Raoul | 93 |
| BE Belgium | #829 | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 7.2K | 7 | Raoul | 72 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.1K | 20 | Raoul | 62 |
| SE Sweden | — | 818 | 1 in 12K | 818 | — | 18 |
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: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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)
Raoul is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Germanic origin; from Radulf, 'counsel wolf'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, a male given name, equivalent to English Ralph
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, Forme dérivée de Rodolphe ; origine germanique, de racines signifiant « conseil » et « loup ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In Italian, Nome esotico introdotto in Italia; corrisponde a Rodolfo.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Swedish, Raoul är en fransk form av det engelska → Ralf. Namnet har i Sverige troligen fått spridning genom diplomaten Raoul Wallenberg (f. 1912, sannolikt död i ryskt fängelse 1947). I både den rikssvenska och finlandssvenska almanackan 27 augusti.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
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)
- Rudolph of Franceb. 890FRnot in their usual nameking of France (890-936)
- Raoul Dufyb. 1877FRFrench painter (1877–1953)
- Raoul Walshb. 1887USAmerican film director and actor (1887–1980)
- Raoul Wallenbergb. 1912SESwedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian (1912-1947)
- Raoul Bottb. 1923USHungarian-born mathematician
- Raoul Coutardb. 1924FRFrench cinematographer (1924-2016)
- Raoul Servaisb. 1928BEBelgian filmmaker and artist (1928–2023)
- Jean Rochefortb. 1930FRnot in their usual nameFrench actor (1930–2017)
- Raoul Trujillob. 1955USAmerican actor and dancer
- Raoul Bovab. 1971ITItalian actor
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 76 sources across 42 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2024 | 31K | #1,002 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.5K | #6,394 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 818 | #1,965 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 306 | — |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 31 | #379 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 12 | #6,394 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2024 | 5 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Raoul mean, and where does it come from?
- from Germanic *rāth- 'counsel' + *wulf- 'wolf' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- What are other forms of the name Raoul?
- In the etymology graph, Raul, Ralph and Ralf are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Raoul a male or female name?
- Raoul 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 Raoul have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 21 thousand people named Raoul in Cameroon, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled raoul.
- How do you pronounce Raoul?
- A machine transcription gives /ʁaul/ (IPA) for French.
- How common is the name Raoul?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,515 people named Raoul in 2020, about 1 in 132 thousand residents.
- How common is Raoul compared with other names?
- In Cameroon, Raoul is the 89th most common given name of 9,064 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Raoul?
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/raoulThe 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, “Raoul” — the 89th most common given name in Cameroon. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.