Names That Mean Ewe

Rachel was derived from the Hebrew word rāchēl, meaning "ewe." In the Old Testament, Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. International variations include the Spanish Raquel and Israeli Rahel.
 
Delicacy, softness, and Old Testament importance made Rachel a top biblical choice from the seventies on. At a much earlier time Rachel was considered characteristically Jewish—it wasn't used as a Christian name until after the Reformation—but the fact that it has reached as high as the Top 10 in this country demonstrates that it has been fully embraced by parents of all backgrounds. While off its peak, Rachel is still one of the most popular <a href="https://nameberry.com/search/girls-names/r">girls' names starting with R</a> as well as one of the most <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/322/classic-baby-names-for-girls">classic names for girls</a>.
 Rachel was a US First Lady name, via the wife of Andrew Jackson, and current prominent bearers include Rachels Weisz, Dratch, McAdams, Griffiths, Maddow, Roy, and Zoe. A major influence on the name was Jennifer Aniston's iconic character on Friends; other fictional Rachels were found in the Anne of Green Gables and Percy Jackson series, and on Glee.

Rachel

All the old ae/ay <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/479/middle-names-for-girls">middle names for girls</a> are back — Kay, Fay, Mae/May — and Rae is one of the coolest, used as such by celebrities as Mark Wahlberg and Daniel Baldwin. 
 
Even more popular in the celebrisphere is the jazzy Ray spelling: among those who used it as their daughters' middles are Bruce Willis, Dermot Mulroney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Lee Lee Sobieski. 
 But Rae is perfectly capable of standing on her own, as in Rae Dawn Chong; it was in the Top 500 in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

This form of the Biblical Rachel is well-used despite its somewhat counter-intuitive spelling which can make English speakers think the name should be pronounced with a k sound, as in Raquel.  The spelling may be inspired by Michael, but it's pronounced just like Rachel, with a soft ch. Lately it's on the decline, dropping more than 100 places in 2009 and leaving the US Top 1000 in 2013. 

Names That Mean Ewe

The names

Rachel

Rae

Rachael

Raye

Raee