”Jajaja?”
”No, Y-a-r-a-y-a = Yaraya”

After starting Yaraya, I’ve had quite a lot of questions about the name. It might also seem a bit weird, so I thought I would try to demystify it a little.

The foundation for the name was laid when I moved to Nigeria with my parents as a child. They worked there and of course my younger brother & I joined them.
My first childhood memories are from that place, memories of warm weather, sun and lots of happy children. Memories of a world filled with play, discovering and freedom, where I would play outside with other children all day and have fun.

We lived in the north-east part of Nigeria and it was quite dry and barren, but you could still find small pretty flowers hidden around. And when the rain came, everything changed like a wave of a magic wand and transformed to a place that was green, moist and overwhelmingly luxuriant. It was an amazing childhood and I would wish everyone else could have the same experiences.

As an adult (back in Denmark), I was looking for a name that could reflect something with childhood, joy, imagination and fairytales. I looked and looked, but everything I found was already taken or felt “wrong”.While we lived in Nigeria, I had learned the local language “Hausa” and I started wondering if that could be used in any way.
In hausa childhood is called yarantaka and fairytales are called hikaya. So Yaraya is a combination of these two words and a symbol of an adventurous childhood, because all children should have that 🙂