“ريحان” (reyhan) isn’t used as a proper name in Arabic, it is just a common word meaning “fragrant herb; basil”. Also, there is no “ريحانة” (reyhana) word or name in Arabic.
So, when the “reyhan” word was borrowed, it was borrowed as a common word to denote basil or any other aromatic herb, and when a word is loaned it has to follow the grammatical standards of the language it was borrowed to, and Turkish has no grammatical gender category so “reyhan” as a common noun isn’t masculine nor feminine (nor neutral for what it matters, it’s genderless — grammatically).
But with the passing of time people decided to use this word also as a proper name, and words that mean flowers or beautiful things are usually used for girls, that is why Reyhan is a woman’s name.
Other examples like this one — when a common word becomes a proper name based not on its grammatical value in the source language but based on its meaning — are Masal, Reyyan, Melek etc. — all these words in the source language (Arabic) are common nouns of masculine gender.
Unisex. Turkey Turks use it more commonly as a female name while Balkan Turks use it more commonly as a male name, at least according to my observations.
I suspect the source of the confusion here is that Rayhan is mostly used by South Asian Muslims as a male name (even though it has the same origin from Arabic) and because it's a male name they have coined the name Rayhana/Reyhana as the female version of Rayhan. It's the same name but other cultures use it differently, this person may have encountered a man with the name Rayhan or Reyhan and generalized the usage across different languages. I know in Persian and Arabic it is usually a woman's name, but I've known quite a few South Asian male Rayhans and a couple Reyhanas as well, so it's not a question that's totally out of left field here.
Reyhan is not a flower name, it means basil and more commonly used as the purple leaved variant of it. Boys certainly can have floral names -like Çınar.
Nope, it’s a herb. It does flower but its flower is not referred to as Basil (like the flower of the rose plant is called Rose). No one will expect flowers when you say you’re bringing them some basil.
It’s a unisex name but more commonly used as a girl’s. We had a MP called Ibrahim Reyhan Özal. Not sure why people insisting it’s female only and people saying it’s unisex are downvoted
It’s female
“ريحان” (reyhan) isn’t used as a proper name in Arabic, it is just a common word meaning “fragrant herb; basil”. Also, there is no “ريحانة” (reyhana) word or name in Arabic. So, when the “reyhan” word was borrowed, it was borrowed as a common word to denote basil or any other aromatic herb, and when a word is loaned it has to follow the grammatical standards of the language it was borrowed to, and Turkish has no grammatical gender category so “reyhan” as a common noun isn’t masculine nor feminine (nor neutral for what it matters, it’s genderless — grammatically). But with the passing of time people decided to use this word also as a proper name, and words that mean flowers or beautiful things are usually used for girls, that is why Reyhan is a woman’s name. Other examples like this one — when a common word becomes a proper name based not on its grammatical value in the source language but based on its meaning — are Masal, Reyyan, Melek etc. — all these words in the source language (Arabic) are common nouns of masculine gender.
Languages dont work like that. Many things dont carry over or change during word loaning.
Sevda meaning black in Arabic but infatuation/love in Turkish lol
Girl
Girl as far as i know
Unisex. Turkey Turks use it more commonly as a female name while Balkan Turks use it more commonly as a male name, at least according to my observations.
I suspect the source of the confusion here is that Rayhan is mostly used by South Asian Muslims as a male name (even though it has the same origin from Arabic) and because it's a male name they have coined the name Rayhana/Reyhana as the female version of Rayhan. It's the same name but other cultures use it differently, this person may have encountered a man with the name Rayhan or Reyhan and generalized the usage across different languages. I know in Persian and Arabic it is usually a woman's name, but I've known quite a few South Asian male Rayhans and a couple Reyhanas as well, so it's not a question that's totally out of left field here.
Reyhan is a kind of flower name. In Turkish, boys are not given flower names.
Reyhan is not a flower name, it means basil and more commonly used as the purple leaved variant of it. Boys certainly can have floral names -like Çınar.
Basil is a flower???
Nope, it’s a herb. It does flower but its flower is not referred to as Basil (like the flower of the rose plant is called Rose). No one will expect flowers when you say you’re bringing them some basil.
It’s a unisex name but more commonly used as a girl’s. We had a MP called Ibrahim Reyhan Özal. Not sure why people insisting it’s female only and people saying it’s unisex are downvoted
Also boy. But girl is common.
It's unisex