Spanish names that start with ‘R’ include choices for boys like Rodrigo, Ronaldo, and Ricardo, alongside options for girls which include Rosalía, Rita, and Raquel.
Roses, with their delicate fragrance, hold a special place among flowers. They have also inspired girl names in many languages, including Spanish.
A large cluster among Spanish girl names starting with ‘R’ comes from “rosa,” the Latin word for the rose flower. These include names like Rosa, Rosalía, Rosalina, Rosalva, Rosalba, Rosario, Rosaura, and Rosita.
The Spanish name Rosa corresponds to the English name Rose. But the form Rosa is also used in the U.S. (the civil rights activist Rosa Parks, for example)
Rosita is a diminutive form the name Rosa. It has become a name in its own right, and in some Spanish-speaking countries, Rosita is a more widely used name than Rosa.
Rosalía is a Spanish name that corresponds to the English name Rosalie.
Rosalba is a name that is often interpreted as meaning “white rose.” It combines the names Rosa and Alba (In Spanish, “alba” is a poetic term that means “white”; the more common adjective is “blanca,” or “blanco” in the masculine form).
In Spanish, the word “alba” also means “dawn.” So the name Rosalba could be interpreted as meaning “rose of dawn.”
Rosalva is likely a variant of the name Rosalba; it has a similar pronunciation because, in Spanish, the letter ‘v’ is pronounced the same as the letter ‘b,’ a phenomenon that linguists call betacism.
Rosario is a Spanish girl’s name that is an exception to the pattern of Spanish female names often ending in ‘a’ (and male names frequently ending in ‘o’). This name arose as a shortened form of “María del Rosario.” The Spanish word “rosario” translates to “rosary,” a term that refers to prayer beads and rose gardens.
Rosaura is a name that may have arisen as a combination of the Latin word “rosa” and the Latin adjective “aurea,” the feminine form of “aureus” (which means “golden”). In that case, the name Rosaura would mean “golden rose.” Note that in Latin, the word “aura” means “air” or “breeze.”
A character named Rosaura appears in the play titled “Life Is a Dream” by 17th-century Spanish author Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
Rita is a name that arose as a shortened form of Margarita, the Spanish form of Margaret, which comes from an Ancient Greek word that means “pearl.”
Rocío is another exception to the pattern of Spanish female names often ending in ‘a’ while their male counterparts frequently end in ‘o.’ Rocío is a female name that is a shortened form of “María del Rocío” (The Spanish word “rocío” means “dew”)
Raquel is the Spanish version of the name Rachel that we use in English. The spelling difference mirrors that seen in Spanish vocabulary words, like “máquina” (machine), “química” (chemistry), and “esquema” (scheme).
The name Remedios is a shortened form of “María de los Remedios” (the Spanish word “remedios” means “remedies”)
Many Spanish male names that start with ‘R’ originate from Germanic languages rather than from Latin. This might seem surprising given that Spanish is a Romance language that evolved from Latin.
Examples include Ronaldo (the Spanish version of the name Ronald), Roberto, Ricardo (the Spanish version of Richard), Rodrigo, and Reinaldo.
Despite their Germanic origins, these names have spelling features (such as the ending in ‘o’) that make them easily recognizable as Spanish names (or Italian, because some of these names are the same in Spanish and Italian).
Some Spanish names that begin with ‘R’ come from Latin, for example, Román, Renato, and Rómulo. And some, like Rafael and Rubén, come from Hebrew.
Many Spanish male names that start with ‘R’ come from Germanic languages because ancient Germanic words for “fame” and “counsel” begin with the ‘r’ sound, and those words were often used to form Germanic male names.
So Germanic languages have plenty of male names that start with ‘R’ and some of them entered the Spanish language. In the process, their endings were changed but they kept the initial letter ‘R.’