Raygan
Feminine · “little king”
Raygan is given to both — 1,046 girls and 51 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
There is a Regan in King Lear, and she is not a nice person: the second daughter, the one who joins in stripping her father of everything and then helps blind a man on stage. She has nothing to do with the Irish surname, and every spelling of this name walks past her.
How old is the name Raygan?
Raygan first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Raygan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,000 people named Raygan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raygan most popular?
Raygan peaked in 2008, reaching #2831 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,086 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ri to Raygan
The story of Raygan
Shakespeare got Lear and his three daughters from a twelfth-century British chronicle, where the middle daughter is Regan; the story was old before he touched it and the name has no explained source. Nobody used it for a child. The Irish surname arrived separately and much later, entered American use as a boy's name, went to girls in the 1990s, and then split into spellings as popular American names always do. Raygan, Raegan, Reagan and Regan are all one name written four ways, and only the last of them collides with the play, which is an argument for and against it depending on how much Shakespeare a family has read.
Meaningscholars disagree
little king
From the Irish surname O Riagain, whose root is usually read as ri, a king, with a diminutive ending. Shakespeare's Regan is a separate name, taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth's chronicle, and its origin is unknown. The two look alike, sound alike in some mouths, and are not related.
How the name formed
- ri
- O Riagain
- Reagan
- Raygan
Pronouncing Raygan
RAY-gun
Two syllables, stress on the first. This is the one spelling of the four that leaves no doubt about the vowel, which is the reason families choose it.
Nicknames for Raygan
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 200863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2831reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
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.
Raygan in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Raygans among us
people named Raygan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Raygan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Raygan
- #10917
- Raygan on the 2025 chart
- #947
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Raygan went to 8 girls in 2025, but Raigan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 13, which makes it the 947th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,970 places above the chart.
- Raygan8
- Raigan5
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Raygan 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 Pedro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raygan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pedro climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pedro's path sketches the road Raygan is walking now.
Raygan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Raygan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raygan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling removes the ambiguity that Reagan and Regan both carry.
- Two syllables, said right on first sight by almost everyone.
- Ray works as a short form for either child.
- Four spellings of one name are in use, so it will be written down wrong regularly.
- The surname it comes from is a presidential one, and that association is not negotiable.
- The few boys given this spelling will be read as girls on paper.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Raygan
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raygans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Raygan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Raygan?
- Raygan is the most-used spelling in US records — 8 of the 13 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Raigan.
- How popular is the name Raygan in 2025?
- Raygan ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raygan?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Raygan — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raygan with classmates?
- Raygan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raygan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raygan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raygan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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