Rayen

Nice, great meaning. Might be mistaken for rayon though.

My grandfather was Cherokee. He died way before my birth so I never learned the language since my mother didn’t teach me it. She thought English was more important. When I was 21 I had my daughter and days before she was born I picked the name Rayén thinking I made it up. I never heard it before my mother said it was pretty but nothing else. A few months after my mother passed my daughter was 22 and working at a convenience store wearing a name tag. One night an elder Cherokee came in and saw her name tag. And in their very direct way of speaking looked at my daughter and said “You have my daughter's name- who gave it to you?” It startled her, she felt like she was accused of something not being around anyone speaking Cherokee and she herself passing as complete Caucasian with her pale complexion. Her skin tone a huge contrast to other family members including my own coppertone color. So she stammered back unsure of how to reply to who she thought just accused her of stealing a name. Lol “My mother gave it to me”. He replied again very directly “she is Cherokee!” More statement than question. She stammered again” I guess so my great grandfather was”. The elder than smiled at her and said “ Rayén is a native name meaning flower” He then left and she never encountered him again. She was so shaken by the encounter I just laughed and explained to her that is their way of speaking. Very direct and to the point he didn’t mean to frighten you. Lol But I found it very interesting I had unintentionally given her a native name without even knowing it and we both probably would have continued to think I had made it up if she had not encountered the elder that night.

It sounds so magical!

I think Rayén is a very pretty, simple and cool-sounding name. I like a lot of Mapuche names, and Rayén, "flower", has to be one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to use it, because it sounds like Ryan in English. I would hate it if anyone thought I had named my daughter Ryan. Unless I move to Latin America anytime soon, I'd opt for the similar-sounding Sayén instead.

I think that Rayen is a beautiful name. I want to name my first daughter that. My birth name is Ryann Racheal, but everyone calls me Rayen. One day I thought of rain, and didn't want to spell it like that so I thought real hard and came up with Rayen pronounced "rain".