Ralph
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From the male personal name Ralph, from Old Norse Ráðúlfr, later reinforced by Norman Radulf/Raulf, literally ‘advice-wolf’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɹælf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Ralph is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 25th most common given name.
- GRGreece≈1 in 924(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 953
- IEIreland≈1 in 964
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 Ralph 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.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- #392 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 583 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 924 (inferred from the name graph)
≈320,000 named Ralf, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Greece, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Ralf in 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)
From the male personal name Ralph, from Old Norse Ráðúlfr, later reinforced by Norman Radulf/Raulf, literally ‘advice-wolf’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Ralph 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #25 | ≈320,000 est. | ≈1 in 253 | — | Ralf | 294 |
| US United States | #184 | 162,513 | 1 in 2K | 162K | Ralph | 583 |
| PH Philippines | #401 | ≈53,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Ralph | 158 |
| GB United Kingdom | #254 | ≈53,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | 1.5K | Ralph | 272 |
| IT Italy | #327 | ≈38,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | 1 | Ralph | 70 |
| GR Greece | #204 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 924 | — | Ralph | 41 |
| CH Switzerland | #117 | ≈8,100 est. | ≈1 in 1K | 14 | Ralph | 103 |
| IE Ireland | #144 | ≈5,400 est. | ≈1 in 964 | — | Ralph | 71 |
| NZ New Zealand | #183 | ≈5,200 est. | ≈1 in 953 | 15 | Ralph | 97 |
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: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); 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)
Ralph 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/Ralph, 'counsel wolf'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, from the personal name Rauf/Ralph; earliest cited as John ap Rauf (1292, Brecon).
as a nameWelsh Surnames
In English, Old English; wolf counsellor, fearless adviser
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
- From a Norman French name, Raulf, a contracted form of the Germanic personal name Radulf, derived from rad ‘counsel’ + wulf ‘wolf’. The spelling with -ph is due to classical influence in the 18th century. Variants: Ralf, Rafe.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, posed of the Gmc elements ric power + tetd/wolf. This was introduced to Britain by the Normans. Vars.: Relf(e), Realff Rentoul see Rintoul Remers see Reinmar
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
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)
- Ralph Waldo Emersonb. 1803USAmerican philosopher (1803–1882)
- Ralph Ellisonb. 1914USAmerican novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer (1914-1994)
- Ralph Nelsonb. 1916USAmerican film and television director (1916–1987)
- Ralph Meekerb. 1920USAmerican actor (1920-1988)
- Ralph Asher Alpherb. 1921USAmerican cosmologist (1921–2007)
- Ralph Laurenb. 1939USAmerican fashion designer (born 1939)
- Ralph Macchiob. 1961USAmerican actor (born 1961)
- Ralph Garmanb. 1964USAmerican actor
- Ralph Egglestonb. 1965USAmerican animator (1965–2022)
- Ralph Inesonb. 1969GBBritish 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 115 sources across 60 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 162K | #344 |
| GB United Kingdom | ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024) | 2024 | 572 | #94 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 211 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 192 | #344 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 16 | #246 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2024 | 15 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | 6 | #270 |
Reference works 6
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- 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 Ralph mean, and where does it come from?
- From the male personal name Ralph, from Old Norse Ráðúlfr, later reinforced by Norman Radulf/Raulf, literally ‘advice-wolf’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Ralph a male or female name?
- Ralph 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.
- What are other forms of the name Ralph?
- In the etymology graph, Raul, Ralf and Raúl are forms of the same name in other languages; Ralphie is a recorded short or pet form.
- In which country does Ralph have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 317 thousand people named Ralf in Germany, more than in any other country we hold.
- How do you pronounce Ralph?
- A machine transcription gives /ɹælf/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Ralph?
- In the United States, the national register counted 162,513 people named Ralph in 2020, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Ralph compared with other names?
- In Germany, Ralph is the 25th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Ralph?
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/ralphThe 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, “Ralph” — the 25th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.