Raw

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Locally spelled Raew in GB United Kingdom, DE Germany.

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)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Raw is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Ràw

55 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.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Raw 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 English, Raulin see Rawling Ralph. 2. topographic name, a northern var. of Rowe i. Var.: Rawe. Raun see Ruane Patrs. (from i): Raw(e)s, Rawse; Rawson (chiefly S Yorks.). Rautainen Finnish; patr. from the Finn. adj. rautainen ‘made of iron’, used as an ornamental name, as a nickname referring to the strength or colour of the metal, or as an occupational name for a blacksmith.

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

• In English, Ralph. 2. topographic name, a northern var. of Rowe i. Var.: Rawe. Patrs. (from i): Raw(e)s, Rawse; Rawson (chiefly S Yorks.). The form Rawes is most common in the Lake District, where the earliest known occurrences are in the 16th cent. (e.g. Windermere is6o, Patterdale 1568). There is a small, apparently unconnected group of bearers of the name Rawes in Dorset.

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• In Romanian, , Paos (Ard I 243). 3. Grafii gre§ite : R e u seni, Ruseni, Rauseni §i seni pentru satul din r. Suceava Rauseni (Iorga IV p. 105), unde cazu ucis Bogdan II, tatal lui Stefan eel Mare. Formele 1-2, infatura etim. lui Bogrea < germ. Reuss ,,rus", < ung. orosz (An C I 385). 4. Rails, loan, buc. (RI VII 120) ; Toader, mold. (Sd V 425). Rfiu§eni v. R Sus 3.

  as a name·Dictionar Onomastic Rominesc

• In sit-pro, heal, be cured

  as a word·StarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)

• In German, initialism of Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (“imperial railway workshop”)

  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.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Harry Rawb. 1903GBEnglish footballer (born 1903)
• Jimy Rawb. 1961BRBrazilian radio host
• Billy Rawb. 1984USAmerican pornographic actor
• Louise Rawhistorian

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).

Evidence●(measured from records)

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

Frequently asked questions

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

dweller by the hedgerow or in the row of houses/street; from OE rāw ‘row’; first attested Edward Bitherawe 1279 AssSo Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.

In which country does Raw have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 929 people named Raw in the United Kingdom, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled raew.

How common is the name Raw?

In the United States, the national register counted 334 people named Raw in 2010, about 1 in 996 thousand residents.