Rafer
Rafer reached its high-water mark in 1961 at number 3,097, and has been recorded 34 times in all. It has not appeared in the national data since 1982. About 30 Rafers are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 57.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Rafer
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 34
- Estimated living today
- 30
- Median age today
- 57
- Peak year
- 1961
- Best rank
- 3,097th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1961
How old the living Rafers are
born that year still alive today
Of the 34 babies given the name since 1961, about 30 are alive — 86 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1968 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Rafers
- Rafer Johnson (1935–2020)American athlete and actor
- Rafer Alston (born 1976)American basketball player
People named Rafer with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names of 1961
The most popular boys’ names the year Rafer peaked:
Related names
Rafer against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.