Baby Names › By letter

78 names for boys beginning with R, each with the meaning our corpus records and the Devanagari spelling where we hold one.
R carries Rama, Radha and ravi, which makes it both the most devotional and the sunniest letter in Indian naming.
There are 78 here, each printed with its meaning and its Devanagari spelling where we hold one. Families usually arrive at a letter for one of three reasons: the birth nakshatra's pada suggests a syllable, a grandparent's name begins with it, or the family simply likes how it sounds with the surname.
Every name comes from our verified name corpus — the editorial workbooks our team maintains, cross-checked against United States birth-registration data. Names we hold no meaning for are left out rather than padded in, which is why this list is shorter than the ones that scrape a dictionary.
78 names, each with the meaning our corpus records for it.
| Name | Meaning | In Devanagari |
|---|---|---|
| Rohan | Ascending | रोहन |
| Ravi | Sun | रवी |
| Rudra | Name of Lord Shiva | रुद्र |
| Reyansh | Ray of light | रेयांश |
| Raghav | Lord Ram | राघव |
| Rudransh | Part of Lord Shiva | रुद्रांश |
| Reyan | Little king; gate of heaven | रेयान |
| Roshan | Means "light, bright" in Persian | रोशन |
| Raj | King | राज |
| Rishabh | Morality, virtue | ऋषभ |
| Rajveer | Brave King | राजवीर |
| Raja | Means "king, ruler", from Sanskrit राजन् (rājan) | राजा |
| Rama | God Ram | राम |
| Ritvik | Priest, spiritual leader | ऋत्विक |
| Ronak | Bright light | रोनक |
| Raamdatt | Gift of Ram | रामदत्त |
| Raghu | Family of Lord Ram | रघु |
| Raghunandan | Lord Ram | रघुनंदन |
| Raghunath | Lord Rama; master of the Raghu dynasty; noble and righteous | रघुनाथ |
| Ragunath | World of God | रघुनाथ |
| Rahulraj | King of the Intelligent | राहुलराज |
| Raiba | Name of God | रैबा |
| Rajani | Means "dark, night" in Sanskrit | रजनी |
| Rajanikant | Moonlight | राजनिकांत |
| Rajaram | King of Ramna | राजाराम |
| Rajas | Mastery, Passion, Pride | राजस |
| Rajasaheb | King | राजासाहेब |
| Rajashekar | Lord Shiva | राजशेखर |
| Rajat | Silver | रजत |
| Rajath | Silver, Brilliant | रजत |
| Rajdeep | Light of the Kingdom | राजदीप |
| Rajdev | King of Gods | राजदेव |
| Rajendra | Great among Kings | राजेंद्र |
| Rajeshwar | Lord of Kings | राजेश्वर |
| Rajhans | Royal Swan | राजहंस |
| Rajit | Decorated, Brilliant | राजीत |
| Rajith | Decorated, Enriched | राजित |
| Rajiv | Lotus | राजीव |
| Rajkanth | Beloved King | राजकांत |
| Rajkumar | Prince, Son of a King | राजकुमार |
| Rajmohan | Fascinating King | राजमोहन |
| Rajnath | Ruler | राजनाथ |
| Rajneesh | Moon, God of Night | राजनीश |
| Rajram | Kingdom of Lord Ram | राजराम |
| Raju | Prosperity | राजू |
| Rajvardhan | King Enhancer, Kingly | राजवर्धन |
| Rajveersingh | Brave King | राजवीरसिंह |
| Ramakrishna | Combination of Lord Rama and Krishna | रामकृष्ण |
| Ramanuj | Younger Brother of Ram | रामानुज |
| Ramashray | Protected by Lord Ram | रामाश्रय |
| Ramesh | Lord Rama | रमेश |
| Ramkishore | Young Ram | रामकिशोर |
| Ramnath | Lord Rama | रामनाथ |
| Ramoji | Lord Ram | रामोजी |
| Ramrao | King's world | रामराव |
| Ranaveer | Hero of the battlefield; brave warrior | रणवीर |
| Ranjan | Means "colouring, pleasing, delighting" in Sanskrit | रंजन |
| Ranjit | From Sanskrit रञ्जित (rañjita ) meaning "coloured, pleased, delighted" | रणजित |
| Rao | Victorious | राव |
| Raosaheb | Highness | रावसाहेब |
| Name | Meaning | In Devanagari |
|---|---|---|
| Rathin | Warrior, Charioteer | रथीन |
| Ratnabhu | Lord Vishnu | रत्नाभू |
| Ravichandran | Sun and Moon | रविचंद्रन |
| Ravikant | Beloved of the Sun | रविकांत |
| Ravikiran | Sun Rays | रविकिरण |
| Raviraj | King of the Sun | रविराज |
| Ravish | Sun God, Lord Surya | रविश |
| Ravit | Sun | रवीत |
| Revanth | Sun | रेवंथ |
| Rigveda | A type of Veda | ऋग्वेद |
| Rishiraj | King of Saints | ऋषिराज |
| Ritik | Joy, Happiness | ऋतिक |
| Rohit | The red rays of the sun | रोहित |
| Roopesh | Lord Shiva | रूपेश |
| Rudraraj | King of Rudra (Shiva); powerful and divine ruler | रुद्रराज |
| Rupesh | Lord of Beauty | रुपेश |
| Rushikesh | Lord Vishnu, Lord of Senses | ऋषिकेश |
| Ruturaj | King of Seasons, Spring | ऋतुराज |
These are the names on this page that show up in United States birth registrations for 2025 — a real signal of which spellings Indian families abroad are registering now. India has no comparable public register, so anyone ranking names within India is estimating.
| Name | Meaning | US births, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Rohan | Ascending | 306 |
| Ravi | Sun | 160 |
| Rudra | Name of Lord Shiva | 152 |
| Reyansh | Ray of light | 124 |
| Raghav | Lord Ram | 87 |
| Rudransh | Part of Lord Shiva | 68 |
| Reyan | Little king; gate of heaven | 42 |
| Roshan | Means "light, bright" in Persian | 30 |
| Raj | King | 22 |
| Rishabh | Morality, virtue | 19 |
| Rajveer | Brave King | 16 |
| Raja | Means "king, ruler", from Sanskrit राजन् (rājan) | 14 |
| Rama | God Ram | 11 |
| Ritvik | Priest, spiritual leader | 11 |
| Ronak | Bright light | 7 |
Say the shortlist with the surname, out loud, several times. A name that is lovely alone can be unsayable in full, and the full version is what a teacher will read from a register.
Fix the spelling before you register the birth. Romanised Indian names have several accepted spellings — the one on the birth certificate has to match the school record, the passport and the Aadhaar that follow it, and correcting them later is genuinely painful.
If your family follows the panchang, the birth nakshatra's pada decides the traditional syllable. Our birth star calculator gives the star, the pada and its syllable from the date and time of birth — start there, then look for a name on this page that fits.
And check the short form and the initials, because those are what the child will actually be called.
Q: How many boys' names starting with R are on this page? — 78, each with a recorded meaning. Names whose meaning we cannot verify are not listed.
Q: Which is the most used? — Of the names here, Rohan (ascending) has the highest 2025 US birth count. Within India, popularity varies a great deal by state and community.
Q: Is my baby's nakshatra syllable the same as this letter? — Not necessarily. The panchang syllables are written in Devanagari and do not map one-to-one onto English letters — "Ch", "Sh" and "Th" are single sounds, for instance. Use the birth star calculator for the syllable, then match it to the Devanagari spellings in the table.
Q: Do you have girls' names for this letter? — Yes, on its own page, along with lists for the other letters and for names grouped by meaning.
Published by: theAsianparent editorial team
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