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Rachel is not a pretty name. But that's okay. Some people don't like "pretty" names. They don't want a "princess." They want to name their daughters something tougher, stronger - something that will ensure she's "taken seriously." Rachel is one of the queens of this kind of name, up near the top with Margaret, Barbara, Sloane, and Grace (and Veronica, too, though she's a bit prettier imo).

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That said... despite the fact that I normally don't gravitate toward "variants" (face it, we tend to have standardized name spellings now, and a lot of variants do little more than cause their bearer unnecessary stress), I think Rachael looks infinitely better. Even though the spelling doesn't actually make a whole lot of phonetic sense (it looks as though it should be pronounced like Michael), I still think that second "A" makes the name look much more attractive. Possibly because the "el" looks so small when written out after that hard "ch" that despite giving it an odd number of letters, Rachael looks better balanced.

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I still doubt I'd name my daughter Rachael, though. I'm one of those people who gravitates toward the more "princess-y" names. To be honest, I prefer Raquel to both Rachel and Rachael.

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Please rate my personal name lists:

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www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/109399
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/91835
http://greens-end.myminicity.com/