Rudolph Valentino, né Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi, 6 May 1895–23 August 1926
The German and English name Raphael comes from Hebrew Rafael, “God heals.” Most people are familiar with Archangel Raphael, whose primary role is as a healer. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all recognise him and hold him as one of the most important archangels. He’s also a saint in Christianity.
Though the name has never been particularly popular in the Anglophone world, it’s a different story in other countries. Raphael was #20 in Austria in 2018, and has been in the Top 40 since at least 1990.
In Belgium, Raphael was #19 in 2018, and has been in the Top 100 since at least 2004. In Switzerland, it’s been Top 100 since at least 1998 (when it was #22), and was #84 in 2018. In France, as Raphaël, it was in the Top 100 almost every year from 1900–28, and rejoined the Top 100 in 1966. In 2018, it was #2.
Self-portrait of Italian artist Raphael (né Raffaello Sanzio), 1483–1520,
ca. 1504–06
Other forms of this name include:
1. Rafael is Hebrew, German, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Galician, Romanian, Catalan, Czech, Slovak, Azeri, Belarusian, Cebuano, Finnish, Macedonian, Scandinavian, Tagalog, and Croatian. The alternate form Rafaël is Dutch.
2. Raffael is German.
3. Rafail is Russian, Montenegrin, Persian, Arabic, and Greek.
4. Raffaello is Italian.
5. Raffaele is also Italian.
6. Rafel is Catalan, Aragonese, and Maltese. The alternate form Rafèl is Occitan.
7. Rafayil is Ukrainian.
8. Rafał is Polish.
9. Rafaelo is Esperanto.
10. Rapolas is Lithuanian.
1835 self-portrait of Polish artist Rafał Hadziewicz (1803–83)
11. Rafailo is Montenegrin and Serbian.
12. Rafôł is Kashubian.
13. Raiféal is Irish.
14. Rafiele is Sardinian.
15. Refoel, or Rifoel, is Yiddish.
16. Rapiel is a rare Georgian form.
17. Räffu is Swiss–German.
18. Raffaellu is Corsican.
19. Rafèu is Provinçal.
20. Rafayel is Armenian.
Russian painter and photographer Rafail Sergeyevich Levitskiy (1847–1940), painted 1878 by Ilya Repin
21. Rafaels is Latvian.
22. Rafaelis is Lithuanian.
23. Rafaäl’ is Tatar.
24. Raafael is Finnish.
25. Îsrafîl is Kurdish.
26. Arrafieli is Sardinian.
27. Arrafiele is also Sardinian.
28. Ráffo is Sami.
29. Râvfaile is Greenlandic.
30. Rafajlo is a rare Serbian form.
Italian actor Rafaela Ottiano, 1888–1942
Female forms:
1. Raphaela is German and English.
2. Rafaela is Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Galician, Polish, Kashubian, Czech, Greek, and Croatian.
3. Raffaela is German.
4. Raphaele is French.
5. Raphaella is English and Brazilian–Portuguese.
6. Raphiela is a rare Latin American–Spanish form.
7. Rapolė is Lithuanian.
8. Rafaella is Brazilian–Portuguese, Latin American–Spanish, and Hungarian.
9. Rafaëlle is a rare French form.
10. Raphaëlle is the more common French form.
11. Raffaella is Italian.
Onomastics Outside the Box 
While I quite dislike Rafał and the way it sounds, I really like Raphael, and even more so the spelling Rafael. It has something adventurous about it and I like the Biblical/angelic connection. I also love the Italian Raffaello as it makes me think of the Raffaello sweets produced by Ferrero, yummm! 😀 And Raf(f)ael(l)a is amazing! I think it’s such a pity that while other feminine Polish forms of the archangelic names – Gabriela and Michalina – are used and especially now enjoying quite a big popularity, Rafaela is still virtually unheard of and I don’t know of any one Polish woman with this name that would be currently alive. Perhaps it’s because the -ae sound isn’t really that common in our language at all, which could be also why Michaela is very significantly less popular than Michalina.
My second name is Rafael. I was christened Ralph Roland Bickersteth Stephenson Clarke, but that was hard to fit on a document. So, with a nod to my Chilean ancestry, I changed it to Roland Rafael Clarke. Archangel Raphael is my guardian healing light being disabled. So all this is fascinating.