Rayaan
An Arabic name meaning "delightful, beautiful, or shining".
Name Census estimates that about 1,200 living Americans carry the first name Rayaan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Rayaan today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rayaan births was 2022 (92 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rayaan. 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.
Key insights
- • Rayaan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 285,629 Americans
Peak year
2022
92 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,247
Tracked since 2000
Gender
Gender distribution for Rayaan
Rayaan leans heavily male at 85.2% of total registrations, but 179 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rayaan as a male name
- Ranked #2,247 in 2024
- 64 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (78 births)
Rayaan as a female name
- Ranked #14,775 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (23 births)
Popularity
Rayaan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rayaan from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 612 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rayaan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rayaan 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 Rayaan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rayaans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Rayaan, while Georgia, Minnesota, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rayaan
The name Rayaan is of Arabic origin and has its roots in the Arabic language. It is derived from the word "raa'a," which means "to see" or "to have vision." The name Rayaan is believed to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula during the early Islamic period, around the 7th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rayaan can be found in the works of renowned Islamic scholars and historians from the medieval period. For example, the 9th-century historian Al-Tabari mentioned a companion of the Prophet Muhammad named Rayaan ibn Yazid, who lived during the 7th century AD.
In the 12th century, a prominent Islamic philosopher and theologian, Rayaan al-Din al-Razi, was born in present-day Iran. He made significant contributions to the fields of medicine, philosophy, and astronomy. Rayaan al-Din al-Razi lived from 1149 to 1209 AD.
During the Ottoman Empire, the name Rayaan gained popularity among the ruling elite. One notable figure was Rayaan Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and military commander who lived in the 16th century. He played a crucial role in the Ottoman conquests in the Balkans and served as the governor of several provinces.
In the modern era, Rayaan became a popular name across the Arab world and among Muslim communities worldwide. One of the most famous bearers of the name is Rayaan Muratović, a Bosnian singer and songwriter born in 1970. He is renowned for his contributions to Sevdalinka, a traditional genre of folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Another notable figure is Rayaan Abou Jabal, a Lebanese artist and calligrapher born in 1945. He is celebrated for his intricate calligraphic works that blend traditional Arabic scripts with modern artistic styles. Abou Jabal's works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums around the world.
People
Rayaan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rayaan 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
Rayaan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rayaan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,200 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rayaan 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 285,629 US residents.
Is Rayaan a common name?
We classify Rayaan as "Rare". It ranks above 91.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,210 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rayaan most popular?
The single biggest year for Rayaan was 2022, when 92 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rayaan is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Rayaan a male name?
Yes, 85.2% of people registered as Rayaan 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.
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.