Raegen is a spelling variant of Reagan, from an Irish surname meaning little king.
Raegen is a creative respelling of Reagan — or more precisely, of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin, anglicized as Reagan. The original Gaelic Riagán likely derives from a root meaning "little king" or "impetuous one," combining rí (king) with a diminutive suffix. As a surname, Reagan is deeply embedded in Irish-American identity, carried across the Atlantic by diaspora families and woven into the political and social fabric of cities from Boston to Chicago.
Its evolution into a given name accelerated in the late twentieth century, particularly for girls, and Raegen represents one of many phonetic variations that parents have adopted to personalize it. The name's most prominent bearer is of course Ronald Reagan, the fortieth President of the United States, and Regan also appears as one of King Lear's daughters in Shakespeare's tragedy — a dark, complex figure that gives the name unexpected literary depth. The Shakespeare connection is interesting for Raegen specifically: in the play it is spelled Regan, and the character's intelligence and ambition, however morally shadowed, lend the name a certain sharp-edged intelligence in literary imagination.
Later usage has largely shed that association in favor of something sunnier and more contemporary. The Raegen spelling, with its distinctive ae vowel cluster, gives the name a slightly Welsh or archaic visual quality that sets it apart from Reagan and Regan on a page. It signals individuality and parents' care in choosing something familiar yet not simply borrowed off a list. Today it appears primarily in American naming culture, particularly in the South and Midwest, where creative respellings of established names are enthusiastically embraced.