Mariam
A feminine name of Aramaic origin meaning "beloved" or "wished for child".
Name Census estimates that about 15,962 living Americans carry the first name Mariam. It sits at #491 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mariam today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mariam births was 2024 (621 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mariam. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Mariam with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,473 Americans
Peak year
2024
621 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
1989 SSA rank
#491
Tracked since 1882
Census
Mariam in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 25,814 people with the first name Mariam, which placed it at #1,376 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,376
National first-name rank
People counted
26K
25,814 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
8.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mariam
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariam is White at 52.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mariam described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mariam at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.5% · 13,558
- Black or African American18.6% · 4,810
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.3% · 3,435
- Hispanic or Latino10.8% · 2,781
- Two or more races4.5% · 1,164
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 66
Gender
Gender distribution for Mariam
Out of the 17,964 babies given the name Mariam since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Mariam as a male name
- Ranked #8,748 in 1989
- 5 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (5 births)
Mariam as a female name
- Ranked #491 in 2024
- 621 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (621 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariam appears almost entirely female. Of the 25,815 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Mariam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mariam from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,123 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mariam remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mariam by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mariam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mariams live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Mariam, while Nevada, Nebraska, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 385 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mariam
The name Mariam has its origins in the ancient Aramaic language, which was widely spoken in the Middle East during the first millennium BC. It is derived from the Aramaic word "maryam," which means "beloved." The name was later adopted into other Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, where it took on variations like "Maryam" and "Miriam."
One of the most famous historical references to the name Mariam is found in the Bible. In the New Testament, Mariam (or Mary in English) is the name of the mother of Jesus Christ. She is considered a highly revered figure in Christianity and is often referred to as the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The name Mariam has also been prominent in Islamic tradition. According to the Quran, Mariam (or Maryam in Arabic) was the mother of the prophet Isa (Jesus). She is regarded as one of the most virtuous women in Islam and is mentioned numerous times in the holy text.
Some of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mariam can be found in ancient Aramaic inscriptions and texts from the region of modern-day Syria and Iraq. One notable figure from antiquity who bore the name was Mariam, the wife of the Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus I, who ruled Judea in the 2nd century BC.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Mariam:
1. Mariam al-Qibtiyya (c. 605–682 AD), an Egyptian Coptic Christian who became a wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
2. Mariam al-Astrabadi (c. 865–935 AD), a prominent female scholar and author from Persia during the Islamic Golden Age.
3. Mariam Baouardy (1846-1878), a Lebanese Melkite Greek Catholic nun who was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2015.
4. Mariam Petrosyan (1969-present), an Armenian-Russian writer known for her novel "The Gray House."
5. Mariam Habach Murib (1934-2018), a prominent Yemeni poet and women's rights activist.
The name Mariam has maintained its popularity across various cultures and religious traditions, reflecting its deep historical roots and significance in the religious and cultural heritage of the Middle East and beyond.
People
Mariam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mariam as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mariam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mariam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,962 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mariam going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 21,473 US residents.
Is Mariam a common name?
We classify Mariam as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,964 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mariam most popular?
The single biggest year for Mariam was 2024, when 621 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mariam is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mariam in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 25,814 people with the name Mariam, or 8.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,376 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mariam in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mariam?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariam appears almost entirely female. Of the 25,815 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mariam?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariam is White at 52.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (13.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mariam most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mariam in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.5% (13,558 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mariam in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mariam a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mariam in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mariam still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mariam in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mariam can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Mariam?
You can see how many people share the name Mariam on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.