Raya
From Hebrew, where it means "friend" or "companion". Most Poles have never met a Raya: only a scattering of girls get the name each year, and every one of them is a girl.
Raya Pronunciation
Raya is pronounced rah-IH-ah (/raˈɨa/).
What Raya means
Where Raya comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Raya starts in Hebrew, where the root re'a points to a friend, a companion. The Song of Songs calls the beloved ra'yati, "my companion," and that same closeness sits under the name. The short meaning has held: friend, companion.
The name travels well. Arabic ears hear it easily, and in Russian Raya lives as a full name in its own right, common among women born in the Soviet decades. Jewish families have carried it too, keeping the plain Hebrew sense of a person who stays beside you. Different languages, one idea of companionship.
It is short. Two syllables, open vowels, easy for a Polish child to say and for a teacher to read off a class register at the start of September. On a Polish form at the urząd, Raya needs no accent marks and no explaining. What it does need is the story behind it, and the story is old: a Hebrew word for the friend who walks with you, przyjaciółka, towarzyszka.
How many people are named Raya
1 in 469663 women in Poland is named Raya. 48 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5500 among female names.
Raya's popularity over time
2 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1795 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2022.
Raya as a middle name
Raya is a first name for 48 women in Poland and a middle name for another 10, an 83/17 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2466th, between Raluca (10) and Rea (10).
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#2464 Radha10
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#2465 Raluca10
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#2466 Raya10
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#2467 Rea10
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#2468 Renarda10