Raffaele Name Meaning, Origin and Heraldry

Written in a baptism entry or a ship's list, Raffaele usually leads back to Raffaelli. At root, the name means “Of Raffaello”. Before spelling was fixed, Raffaelli was also written Raffaele. Local scribes, dialects and emigration all left their mark on how the name was written. You may also find the name written Raffaello.

The Census Bureau's 2010 surname file lists Raffaele with 978 bearers, at rank 25,314. That puts it inside the top 50,000 US surnames. From 1891 to 2000, 136 births in France were registered under Raffaele.

Arms linked to Raffaelli and its spellings were granted to individual families; our heraldry team traces which line they belonged to. For the full story, order the Raffaele surname pack.