The feminine form of Raphael, from Hebrew meaning "God has healed."
Rafaella is the Italian and Portuguese feminine form of Raphael, from the Hebrew Rafa'el (רָפָאֵל), meaning "God has healed." The archangel Raphael appears in the Book of Tobit as a healer and guide, traveling in disguise with a young man named Tobias and restoring his father's sight — a story of compassion and concealed divinity that made the name synonymous with gentle, curative power. In Christian tradition, Raphael became the patron of doctors, travelers, and the blind.
The name's most famous earthly bearer is the Renaissance painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known simply as Raphael, whose Madonnas and frescoes in the Vatican defined an ideal of luminous, balanced beauty for centuries. The feminine form Rafaella carries that same aesthetic legacy — it is a name that feels painterly, Italianate, warm. In Brazil and Italy especially, Rafaella has a long history as a given name, often associated with grace and artistic sensibility.
The Brazilian singer Rafaella Santos, sister of footballer Neymar, brought contemporary visibility to the spelling. In recent years, Rafaella has found favor among parents seeking an alternative to the more common Isabella or Arabella — it offers a similar rolling cadence and Italian character while remaining distinctly its own. The double-l spelling is preferred in Italian and Portuguese, giving the name a particularly lyrical quality. It ages beautifully: easy to nickname (Rafa, Ella, Rafi) yet full enough to stand on its own in formal settings.