Miriam
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Miriam is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country, where it is the most common given name. Recorded meaning: Miriam represents prophetic inspiration, the power of praise, and leadership among women.
- ECEcuador1 in 16as Maria(measured from records)
- SVEl Salvador≈1 in 16as Maria
- BRBrazil1 in 17as Maria
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Miriam itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- #1 (measured from records)
- 11 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 679 (measured from records)
- 1 in 16 (inferred from the name graph)
12,284,478 named Maria, 2022
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ecuador, as Maria
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
11 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Maria in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, EC Ecuador and 1 more, Mary in US United States, PH Philippines, CZ Czechia and Мария in RU Russia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Miriam represents prophetic inspiration, the power of praise, and leadership among women. In Jewish tradition, she is associated with 'living water' (Mayim Chayim) and the miraculous 'Well of Miriam' that sustained the Israelites.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 24 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Miriam counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | #1 | 12,284,478as Maria | 1 in 17 | 12M | Maria | 306 |
| AR Argentina | #1 | ≈2,300,000 est. | ≈1 in 20 | 5.3K | Maria | 253 |
| RU Russia | #19 | ≈2,000,000 est. | ≈1 in 72 | #4 | Мария | 263 |
| US United States | #1 | 1,768,343as Mary | 1 in 188 | 1.8M | Mary | 679 |
| PH Philippines | #1 | ≈1,200,000 est. | ≈1 in 92 | 27K | Mary | 225 |
| EC Ecuador | #1 | 1,042,139as Maria | 1 in 16 | 1M | Maria | 165 |
| CZ Czechia | #22 | 521,052as Marie | 1 in 21 | 521K | Mary | 130 |
| SV El Salvador | #2 | ≈410,000 est. | ≈1 in 16 | 627 | Maria | 110 |
12,284,478 people counted by IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror), 2022. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Top 500 First Names in the Philippines (PSA FOI response, tracking; INEC — civil registry names; This page discusses the popularity of names in Sonsonate, El Salvador, and Puno, Peru in the 1980s, published by Maybe i; MVČR — living population register 2017. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Miriam is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The etymology is debated; it may derive from the Egyptian 'mry' meaning 'beloved' or 'love'. In Hebrew tradition, it is often associated with 'mar' (bitter) or 'meri' (rebellion).
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The etymology of the name Miriam is disputed; proposed origins include an Egyptian root meaning "beloved" or a Hebrew root related to "rebellion" or "bitterness".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Miriam is a name of Hebrew and Egyptian origin implying 'beloved' or 'wished-for child'. It is the original Hebraic form of the name Mary.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew name of Moses and Aaron’s sister; etymology discussed in the entry continuation.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
In English, Hebrew: bitter; also used for 'star of the sea'.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Maryb. 18ILnot in their usual namemother of Jesus Christ
- Miriam Hopkinsb. 1902USAmerican actress (1902-1972)
- Miriam Makebab. 1932ZASouth African singer and civil rights activist (1932–2008)
- Miriam Stevensonb. 1933USAmerican actress and model
- Míriam Colónb. 1936USPuerto Rican actress (1936-2017)
- Miriam Margolyesb. 1941GBBritish-Australian actress
- Miriam Shorb. 1971USAmerican actress
- Robynb. 1979SEnot in their usual nameSwedish singer (born 1979)
- Miriam Bryantb. 1991SESwedish pop singer and songwriter
- Belle Knoxb. 1995USnot in their usual nameAmerican pornographic actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 115 sources across 62 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 108K | #524 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 74K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 74K | #410 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 71K | #611 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — civil registry names | 2024 | 20K | #107 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 4.7K | #266 |
| CZ Czechia | naše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot | — | 2.4K | #295 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 1.3K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 1.1K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 341 | #410 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 214 | #524 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Nombres de nacimientos (2012–present) | 2024 | 34 | #1,245 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What are other forms of the name Miriam?
- In the etymology graph, Maria, Mary and Marie are forms of the same name in other languages.
- What does the name Miriam mean, and where does it come from?
- Miriam represents prophetic inspiration, the power of praise, and leadership among women. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- In which country does Miriam have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 12 million people named Maria, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Miriam most common?
- No national register we hold counts the spelling Miriam itself. The densest figure for its family of spellings is Ecuador's: the national register counts about 1 in 16 people named Maria.
- Is Miriam a male or female name?
- Miriam is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Miriam?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 12,284,478 people named Maria in 2022, about 1 in 17 residents.
- How common is Miriam compared with other names?
- In Brazil, Miriam is the most common given name of 474,894 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Miriam?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/miriamThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Miriam” — the most common given name in Brazil. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.