Raya

Name Raya or Rayyah is an old Arabic name, it means mellow. A famous pair of characters in an Egyptian play are Rayyah and Skeena!

Raya (Рая) is also a diminutive of the Russian name Raisa. [noted -ed]

Raya Origin Hebrew means friend and it also means thirsty no more in a biblical saying. I named my daughter this name 13 years ago and did a lot of lookup before I stuck with the name.

I know a lady with this name who survived the Holocaust in Russia. I asked her whether it is a pet form of Rachel. She told me that in her case it is a pet form of Raisa, but that because there are now many immigrants to Israel called Raisa the pet form Raya has morphed into a Hebrew name meaning (to quote her exact definition) "bosom friend". She added that her own Hebrew name is not Rachel, as I'd assumed, but Ruth.

Ok to make it 100% clear: the Hebrew meaning of Raya is a "wife" or literally a "spouse" רעיה pronounced as Reaya. However, the name Raya has nothing to do with this. It's just a short (pet) name of Raisa (Jewish -Russian origin), which originally was formed as a short name of Rachel or Rachil in Yiddish. It was in use in my grandma's generation (that's her name btw) but rarely in use in Russia these days. Hope that makes it clear. ;)

I am a native Russian and I know a few Russian women whose name is Raisa and who uses the diminutive Raya, so this name is definitely used in Russia. I also know an American girl whose name is Raya, but she pronounces it "RAY-ah".

Raya is a Hebrew word which simply means "Beautiful woman and wife".

Raya in biblical Hebrew means Friend. The origin of this name comes from a word which means friend of God.

Ditto the other two comments. Raya is a pet form of Rayna or Rangelina, but I don't think it has anything to do with Raisa. [noted -ed]

My Russian grandma was named Raisa and she has always been called Raya. But maybe this pet form isn't used today.

Raya is a name commonly used in Bulgaria as well. The meaning of the name is strongly related to the Bulgarian word for "heaven" which sounds pretty close to 'Raya' - RAI. In Bulgaria Raisa is not very popular for it sounds Russian indeed. Nevertheless Raya is considered one of our most beautiful although not most popular names.

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In fact the name Raya (or Raja, Raia) is not used in Russia today (Raisa is their commonly used name). As it is in many cases - a truly Bulgarian name is confused with a Russian one.