I wanted something less used for boys than [name]Rowan[/name]. (It’s a common-enough male name here in Australia) and I like leaving nature names for the guys when possible as there’s not many. My hope had been for [name]Rosamund[/name] but my husband doesn’t like it.
My husband is shockingly okay - we rarely both like a name - with [name]Rain[/name], and with [name]Raina[/name]/[name]Rayna[/name]/[name]Reina[/name].
[name]Rain[/name] is a nature name, with the simplest meaning and spelling but also maybe the least “name” sounding? I can’t decide if I like its single-syllableness or not.
The others mean “queen” or “pure.” I don’t know which spelling is best, though I generally lean away from y’s. Has no gender identity issues. Used in several languages.
My husband also likes [name]Raine[/name]. I’m not sure the e does anything for me, really, but it was the one he picked first (though he a minute later said “they’re all good”) so it has some draw.
I would be interested in which appeals to you?
None of them are on the Australian top 1000. They are more popular in the US. I am American though and we’re not sure where we’ll be later.
I actually have never met a girl [name]Rain[/name], but several boy [name]Rain[/name]'s and one spelled [name]Raine[/name] I prefer [name]Rain[/name] on a boy and [name]Raina[/name] on a girl.
[name]How[/name] about the name [name]Rainey[/name] for a girl. Actress [name]Andy[/name] McDowell named her daughter that and I really like it. [name]Raine[/name] always makes me think of [name]Brad[/name] [name]Pitt[/name]'s character [name]Aldo[/name] [name]Raine[/name] in Inglorious Bastards. Not a good association. I think [name]Raina[/name] or [name]Rainey[/name] would be the best choice.
The thing is, you’ll always find someone with the same name and a bad association, if you look hard enough. I honestly don’t mean to dismiss your opinion, so I hope it doesn’t come off that way. I just don’t think it’s worth worrying about the name of a character in a movie, especially one who is not hugely well-known and will probably be forgotten in a few years (by those who ever knew about him in the first place). JMO.
I like both [name]Rain[/name] and [name]Reina[/name] (those are the original spellings, so they’re the ones I’d choose) - I’d lean slightly towards [name]Reina[/name], only because I know a wonderful, spunky little girl with that name who’s really made me warm up to it.
I really need an R name. And [name]Reina[/name]/[name]Rayna[/name] get the same [name]Rain[/name] as NN effect with a more softly vintage feel than [name]Lorraine[/name], which is sassy-but-brassy to my ear.
[name]Rain[/name] is the nature word
[name]Reyna[/name] is a Spanish variant of [name]Reina[/name] when [name]Reina[/name] is a Spanish name. In Spanish these mean “queen.”
[name]Rayna[/name] is a Yiddish spelling but so is [name]Reina[/name] (I can’t find any details on if one is older than the other and Yiddish uses a different alphabet anyway). In Yiddish these mean “pure.”
[name]Rayna[/name] is also sometimes Bulgarian, where it means “queen.”
So they are all valid spellings as far as I know? Unless I’ve done something wrong.
Oh, interesting. I had pretty much assumed that [name]Reina[/name] was the original, since it looks the most Latinate/similar to [name]Regina[/name] (the name that it’s derived from) - did not know that [name]Rayna[/name] was Yiddish/Eastern European!
Oh I left [name]Raina[/name] off… apparently it was used in Eastern Europe too, probably interchangeably with i? Or something? It’s rather messy, lol. And Bulgarian doesn’t use the same alphabet either so its a bit vague, I think its a matter of what translator got to it first, especially before rules of i vs. y were really pinned down.
But some people think Yiddish developed it as a short form of [name]Katherine[/name], rather than [name]Regina[/name]. With the “pure” meaning from there. I don’t know that helps with the spelling though.
I prefer [name]Rain[/name]. Mind you, I generally have a thing for nature names so that’s where I’m coming from. The others are fine too, but I like the simplicity and gentleness of [name]Rain[/name], and I think some of that is lost once you add the ‘a’ on the end.
I love both names, however I like [name]Raine[/name] just a little bit more. I feel the E at the end separates it from just being a word, to actually being a name…but that’s just my opinion. I like [name]Raina[/name] too, but not quite as much.
I prefer [name]Rain[/name] on a boy and [name]Raina[/name] on a girl.