Reghan is a variant of Reagan or Regan, from an Irish surname meaning little king.
Reghan is a modern phonetic respelling of Reagan or Regan, a name rooted in the ancient Irish surname Ó Riagáin, meaning 'descendant of Riagán.' The personal name Riagán itself derives from the Old Irish word for 'king' or 'royalty,' lending the name a regal undertone that has never entirely faded. The O'Reagan clan was historically prominent in Connacht and Leinster, giving the name deep roots in Gaelic heritage.
The name gained cultural gravity from Shakespeare's King Lear, where Regan is one of the treacherous daughters — a complicated literary legacy that nonetheless kept the name in the Western imagination for centuries. S. presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, when it crossed over as a unisex given name, particularly for girls.
By the 1990s and 2000s, Reagan and its variants had become firmly established in the American naming landscape. The spelling Reghan represents the 21st-century impulse to make a familiar name feel uniquely personal. The 'gh' construction echoes Irish spelling conventions — think of names like Siobhan or Oisín — giving this variant a subtle Celtic authenticity even if it was born from modern creative spelling. It is a name that honors old roots while belonging entirely to its bearer.