Raya
Feminine · “Friend”
Raya is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 8,003 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Raya is one of those short names that several languages arrived at independently: a Hebrew word for companion, a Russian and Bulgarian pet form of Raisa, an Arabic name in its own right. Two syllables, one open vowel at each end, and nothing in it that needs explaining out loud. It has been quietly on the American record for decades, and has picked up considerable speed lately.
How old is the name Raya?
Raya first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Raya is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,900 people named Raya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raya most popular?
Raya peaked in 2023, reaching #353 nationally. Today it ranks #369, 16 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Raya appears on this list:
Works in British families too:
Where it comes from
From Rhaïs to Raya
The story of Raya
The Hebrew ra'ya is the oldest thread: a word for companion or beloved, used in the Song of Songs and revived as a given name in modern Hebrew. Separately, Slavic families have used Raya for generations as the everyday form of Raisa, itself from the Greek Rhaïs, borne by an Egyptian saint of the fourth century. A third line runs through Arabic Rayya. The spelling gained wide visibility in English through Disney's animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon, whose heroine carries it — which is why the American wave is so recent, and why so many bearers are still small children.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Friend, companion" in Hebrew — though the name also reaches English by two other roads
Three genuine sources meet at this spelling. In Hebrew, ra'ya (רעיה) means friend or companion, the feminine of re'a, and appears in the Song of Songs as a term of endearment. In Russian and Bulgarian, Raya (Рая) is a long-established affectionate short form of Raisa. In Arabic, Rayya carries the sense of thirst quenched, water enough. None of these cancels the others — a Raya may be named from any of them.
How the name formed
- Rhaïs
- Raisa
- Raya
Related forms: רעיה (Ra'ya) · Рая (Raya) · Рая (Raya) · رية (Rayya) · Raia · Raiya
Pronouncing Raya
RYE-uh
RYE-uh is the dominant American pronunciation and the one used for the Disney character. RAY-uh is also in real use, and Hebrew speakers stress the second syllable: ra-YAH. Expect to state your version more than once.
Nicknames for Raya
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 2023867 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #353reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −3.5%831 in 2025, from 861
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Raya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- רעיה (Ra'ya) in Hebrew — same name
- Рая (Raya) in Russian — transliteration
- Рая (Raya) in Bulgarian — transliteration
- رية (Rayya) in Arabic — related form
- Raia in English — spelling variant
- Raiya in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Office for National Statistics. Sources
Rayas among us
people named Raya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,934 born in 2025 was named Raya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Raya
- #369
- Raya on the 2025 chart
- #288
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Raya went to 831 girls in 2025, but Rayah, Raiya and Raaya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 1,091, which makes it the 288th most-given girls’ name of the year — 81 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,473 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,934 for Raya itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Brittni test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brittni climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brittni's path sketches the road Raya is walking now.
Raya is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Raya is headed
Raya looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 55% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Raya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, five letters, no silent letters or doubled consonants — writable by the child themselves early on.
- Genuinely at home in Hebrew, Russian, Bulgarian and Arabic, so it travels between families and languages without translation.
- Also charts in England & Wales, which means it reads as a name rather than a novelty to English speakers abroad.
- Rae and Ray are ready-made informal forms, both already established as names in their own right.
- Two pronunciations compete — RYE-uh and RAY-uh — and neither is wrong. Choosing one and using it consistently saves a lifetime of small corrections.
- For this generation the name is closely tied to the Disney heroine. That association will be the first thing many people mention, and it will fade slowly rather than quickly.
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood with Maya, Kaia, Aaliyah and Alaya, so mishearings are more likely than misspellings.
- The climb is steep and still going. A Raya will likely be the only one in her class, but that may be less true by the time she reaches high school.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Raya
Feminine · #369 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rayas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,900 people named Raya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Raya?
- Raya is the most-used spelling in US records — 831 of the 1,091 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Rayah, Raiya, Raaya, Raia and Raiyah.
- How popular is the name Raya in 2025?
- Raya ranks #369 among US girl names in 2025, with 831 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raya?
- About 1 in every 1,934 US girls born in 2025 was named Raya — 831 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raya with classmates?
- Raya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adhara#370 · Alaya#368 · Jordyn#371 · Mallory#372 · Ariyah#366 · Adriana#366 · Esmeralda#373 · Matilda#364
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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