Maryah
Of Arabic origin, meaning "bitter" or "rebellious".
Name Census estimates that about 2,134 living Americans carry the first name Maryah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maryah today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maryah births was 2008 (123 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maryah. 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 Maryah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 160,616 Americans
Peak year
2008
123 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,533
Tracked since 1974
Census
Maryah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,671 people with the first name Maryah, which placed it at #8,638 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
#8,638
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,671 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
40.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maryah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryah is Black at 40.2%. The next largest groups are White (25.7%) and Hispanic (22.4%). 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 Maryah 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 Maryah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American40.2% · 671
- White25.7% · 430
- Hispanic or Latino22.4% · 374
- Two or more races9.7% · 162
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 11
Popularity
Maryah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maryah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 806 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maryah 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 Maryah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maryahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Maryah, while Virginia, New York, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maryah
The name Maryah is a feminine given name that has its origins in the Arabic language. It is a variant spelling of the name Maria, which is the Latin form of the Hebrew name Miriam. The name Miriam is derived from the ancient Hebrew root "mr" meaning "bitter" or "beloved," with the added possessive suffix "am" meaning "their."
In the Old Testament, Miriam was the name of the sister of Moses and Aaron, who played a significant role in the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This biblical association has contributed to the widespread use of the name Maryah and its variants across various cultures and religions.
The name Maryah gained popularity during the spread of Islam and the Arabic language throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It became a common name among Muslim communities, and its usage extended to other regions as well.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Maryah can be found in the 9th century, when Maryah al-Qibtiyyah, also known as Maria the Copt, was a prominent figure in the Abbasid court during the reign of Caliph Al-Mu'tasim. She was a skilled poet and musician who significantly influenced the cultural life of the time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Maryah. In the 12th century, Maryah al-Astrabadi was a renowned Persian poet and philosopher who composed works in Arabic and Persian. In the 19th century, Maryah al-Majdubah was a Sudanese spiritual leader and Sufi mystic who gained a significant following in Sudan and Egypt.
Other notable figures with the name Maryah include Maryah al-Malika, a 13th-century Queen of Yemen, and Maryah al-Qibtiyyah, a 9th-century Egyptian princess and wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tazz. Additionally, Maryah al-Muqri, a 17th-century Moroccan scholar and writer, made significant contributions to the study of Islamic jurisprudence and theology.
While the name Maryah has its roots in the Arabic language and Muslim culture, it has transcended these boundaries and has been embraced by various communities worldwide, reflecting the rich diversity and cross-cultural influences that have shaped the history of names.
People
Maryah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maryah 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
Maryah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maryah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,134 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maryah 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 160,616 US residents.
Is Maryah a common name?
We classify Maryah as "Rare". It ranks above 94% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,172 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maryah most popular?
The single biggest year for Maryah was 2008, when 123 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maryah is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maryah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,671 people with the name Maryah, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,638 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 Maryah 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 Maryah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maryah appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,674 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Maryah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maryah is Black at 40.2%. The next largest groups are White (25.7%) and Hispanic (22.4%). 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 Maryah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Maryah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.2% (671 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 Maryah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maryah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maryah 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 Maryah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maryah 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 Maryah 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 common is the name Maryah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.