Raiyan
An Arabic name meaning "delicate, refined or heavenly garden".
Name Census estimates that about 345 living Americans carry the first name Raiyan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Raiyan today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raiyan births was 2003 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raiyan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Raiyan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
345
~ 1 in 993,491 Americans
Peak year
2003
22 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,135
Tracked since 1999
Census
Raiyan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 398 people with the first name Raiyan, which placed it at #24,271 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,271
National first-name rank
People counted
398
398 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raiyan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raiyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (11.8%) and Black (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Raiyan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Raiyan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander71.4% · 284
- White11.8% · 47
- Black or African American7.3% · 29
- Two or more races5.8% · 23
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 5
Popularity
Raiyan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raiyan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 156 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Raiyan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raiyan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Raiyan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raiyans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Raiyan
The name Raiyan is of Arabic origin and is derived from the root word "ra'a," which means "to pasture" or "to tend to livestock." It is believed to have emerged during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century AD, in the Arabian Peninsula.
The name Raiyan is closely associated with the concept of nurturing and caring for others, reflecting the nomadic lifestyle of the early Arabs who depended on livestock for their livelihood. It was commonly given to boys born into families of shepherds or those involved in animal husbandry.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Raiyan can be found in the Hadith literature, which are the recorded sayings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. In a specific Hadith, the name Raiyan is mentioned as the name of a companion of the Prophet.
Throughout Islamic history, several notable individuals have borne the name Raiyan. One of the earliest was Raiyan ibn Shurayh al-Shaybani (d. 716 AD), a renowned Islamic scholar and jurist from the Umayyad Caliphate. Another was Raiyan ibn al-Salt (d. 834 AD), a celebrated Arab poet and litterateur from the Abbasid period.
During the medieval era, the name Raiyan was also found among the ruling dynasties of the Muslim world. Raiyan ibn al-Walid (d. 1087 AD) was a prominent ruler of the Mirdasid dynasty, which governed parts of modern-day Syria and Lebanon. Raiyan ibn Khidr (d. 1161 AD) was a Seljuk prince who ruled over parts of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
In more recent times, the name Raiyan has been carried by several influential figures in various fields. One notable example is Raiyan al-Sudairi (1920-2003), a Saudi Arabian businessman and member of the influential Sudairi family, which has close ties to the ruling House of Saud.
While the name Raiyan has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly among Muslim communities. The name continues to be widely used today, carrying the essence of its historical meaning and cultural significance.
People
Raiyan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raiyan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Raiyan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raiyan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 345 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raiyan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 993,491 US residents.
Is Raiyan a common name?
We classify Raiyan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 348 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raiyan most popular?
The single biggest year for Raiyan was 2003, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raiyan is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raiyan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 398 people with the name Raiyan, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,271 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Raiyan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Raiyan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Raiyan leans strongly male. 348 people counted with this name were male (87.9%), compared with 48 female bearers (12.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Raiyan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raiyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (11.8%) and Black (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Raiyan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Raiyan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (284 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Raiyan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raiyan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Raiyan in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Raiyan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raiyan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Raiyan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Raiyan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.