Rachel

In the Book of Genesis, Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban and the beloved wife of the patriarch Jacob, who worked for her father for 14 years to earn her hand.

She was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and died in childbirth near Bethlehem, where her tomb remains a pilgrimage site for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The prophet Jeremiah invokes her in chapter 31, verse 15, with the image of Rachel weeping for her children, a passage later quoted in the Gospel of Matthew.

Despite its biblical stature, the name was rarely used by Christians during the medieval period, remaining primarily a Jewish name until the Protestant Reformation, when reformers in England, the Netherlands, and Germany embraced Hebrew biblical names

previously avoided by the Catholic Church.

It became common among English Puritans by the 17th century and crossed to the American colonies with the early settlers. The French form Rachel is identical in spelling, while German, Dutch, and Scandinavian usage varies only slightly.

According to U.S. Social Security Administration records, Rachel appeared continuously in the top 1000 from 1880 onward and entered the top 10 during the 1980s and 1990s, peaking at rank 7 in 1996.

The sitcom Friends (1994-2004), whose character Rachel Green was played by Jennifer Aniston, sustained its dominance for nearly a decade.

Other notable bearers include the French actress Élisa Rachel Félix (1821-1858), known simply as Rachel, and American journalist Rachel Maddow, born in 1973.