Meaning & History
Possibly derived from the Guanche word *răyyək, referring to a member of the Irăyyăkăn, a noble tribe of the Adrar des Ifoghas area of Mali. According to Antonio de Viana's epic poem Antigüedades de las Islas Afortunadas de la Gran Canaria (1604), this was the name of a late 15th-century Guanche captain and ambassador who served under Beneharo, the king of Anaga on the island of Tenerife (present-day Canary Islands, Spain), at the time of the Spanish conquest of the island.