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Miriam, Miryam
	Miriam the prophetess; (Anselm Feuerbach 1862)
Gender	female
Origin
Word/name	Hebrew (Egyptian)
Meaning	unknown; various
Region of origin	Levant
Other names
Nickname(s)	Mimi, Miri, Mim, Mir
Related names	Maria, Mariam, Mary, Maryam, Meryem

Miriam (Hebrew: מִרְיָם, Modern: Mīryam, Tiberian: Mīryām) is a feminine given name recorded in Biblical Hebrew in the Book of Exodus as the name of the sister of Moses, the prophetess Miriam.^[1]

Spelling variants include French Myriam, German Mirjam, Mirijam; hypocoristic forms include Mira, Miri and Mimi (commonly given in Israel).^[2]

The name's etymology is unclear. Since many Levite names are of Egyptian origin, the name could come from the Egyptian mr "love", as in the Egyptian names mry.t-jmn (Merit-Amun) "beloved of Amun" and mry.t-rꜥ (Merytre) "beloved of Ra".^[3]

An older Grecian pronunciation of this name, Maryām (Μαριάμ), is found in the Greek Old Testament (3rd century BCE) and in the New Testament manuscripts as the name of several women, including Mary, mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Variants of this name include Greek and Latin Maria, whence French Marie and English Mary.

"Miriam" is a common female name in countries that speak English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Dutch as well as among Ashkenazi Jews. It is also fairly common in Scandinavian countries, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia.

Variant Maryam

Mary, mother of the Jesus of the New Testament, bore a Judeo-Aramaic variant of this name, Maryām (מרים). In the New Testament of the Bible, written in Greek, her name is transliterated Mariam (Μαριάμ) or Maria. Several other women in the New Testament, including St. Mary Magdalene, are called by the same name.

In antiquity, it was variously etymologized as "rebellion", "bitter sea", "strong waters", "exalted one", "ruling one", "wished for child", or "beautiful".^[3]

St. Jerome (writing c. 390), following Eusebius of Caesarea, translates the name as "drop of the sea" (stilla maris in Latin), from Hebrew מר mar "drop" (cf. Isaias 40:15) and ים yam "sea". This translation was subsequently rendered stella maris ("star of the sea") due to scribal error or as a result of 3rd century vowel shifts, from which comes the Virgin Mary's title Star of the Sea.^[3]

Alternatively, the name can be interpreted "star of the sea" if taken as a contracted form of the Hebrew מאור ma'or "star" (lit. "luminary") plus ים yam "sea", yet this "strikes as a very free interpretation".^[4]

Rashi, an 11th-century Jewish commentator on the Bible, wrote that the name was given to the sister of Moses because of the Egyptians' harsh treatment of Jews in Egypt. Rashi wrote that the Israelites lived in Egypt for two hundred ten years, including eighty-six years of cruel enslavement that began at the time Moses' elder sister was born. Therefore, the girl was called Miriam, because the Egyptians made life bitter (מַר, mar) for her people.^[5]

Because of Mary's great religious significance, variants of her name are often given to girl children in both the Western and Arab worlds. In the Quran, Mary's name assumed the Arabic form Maryam (مريم), which has also passed into other languages. The Greek variant Maria passed into Latin and from thence into many modern European languages.

Biblical and apocryphal figures

Miriam, the sister of Moses
Woman with seven sons, Jewish martyr described in 2 Maccabees 7, named in Lamentations Rabbah as Miriam bat Tanhum
Mariam (Mary), the mother of Yeshua (Jesus)
Mariam (Mary) of Magdala
Mariam, wife of Clopas
Mariam, sister of Jesus (that’s probably her name)

People named Miriam

Mary the Jewess, also known as Miriam the Prophetess, an early alchemist believed to have lived some time between the first and third centuries AD
Miriam, daughter of Rashi
Miriam, Princess of Turnovo (born 1963), Spanish jewellery designer
Miriam Barnes (born 1983), American hurdler and sprinter
Miriam Ben-Porat (1918–2012), Israeli judge and state comptroller
Miriam Esther Brailey (1900–1976), American physician
Miriam Brouwer (born 1991), Canadian cyclist
Miriam Butterworth (1918–2019), American educator, politician, and activist
Miriam Cani (born 1985), Albanian singer
Miriam Caracciolo di Melito (1888-1966), American socialite and Italian countess
E. Miriam Coyrière (fl. 1880), American businesswoman
Miriam Daly (1928–1980), Irish civil rights activist and republican leader
Miriam Dean, New Zealand Queen's Counsel
Miriam Flynn (born 1952), American voice artist and character actress
Miriam Gallardo (born 1968), Peruvian volleyball player
Miriam Goldberg (1916–2017), American newspaper publisher and editor
Miriam Gonzalez (born 1977), Playboy playmate
Miriam González Durántez (born 1968), Spanish international trade lawyer and wife of former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg
Miriam Ezagui, American nurse and TikToker
Miriam Hodgson (1938–2005), British editor of children's books
Mirjam Indermaur (born 1967), Swiss author
Miriam Israeli (born 1966), American-Israeli singer and lyricist
Miriam Kara (born 1938), Israeli Olympic gymnast
Miriam Leone (born 1985), Miss Italia 2008
Miriam Leslie (1828–1914), American author, publisher, woman suffrage advocate, and philanthropist
Miriam Lexmann (born 1972), Slovak politician
Miriam Makeba (1932–2008), South African singer and activist
Miriam Margolyes (born 1941), British actress
Miriam McDonald (born 1987), Canadian actress, star of Degrassi: The Next Generation
Miriam Miranda, Honduran human rights activist
Miriam Moses (1884–1965), British politician
Miriam O'Callaghan (media personality) (born 1960), Irish television presenter
Miriam Pirazzini (1918–2016), Italian singer
Mirjam Pressler (1940–2019), German novelist and translator
Miriam Quiambao (born 1975), Filipino entertainer and beauty pageant titleholder
Miriam Ramón (born 1973), Ecuadorian racewalker
Miriam Saphira, New Zealand lesbian activist and psychologist
Miriam Soledad Raudez Rodríguez, Nicaraguan politician
Miriam Roth (1910–2005), Israeli educationist
Miriam Defensor Santiago (1945–2016), Senator in the Philippines
Miriam Shaviv (born 1976), literary editor of the Jerusalem Post
Miriam Siderenski (born 1941), Israeli Olympic runner
Miriam Soares (born 1965), Brazilian footballer
Miriam Stockley (born 1962), English South African-born singer
Miriam Stoppard (born 1937), British physician, author, television presenter, and agony aunt
Miriam Syowia Kyambi (born 1979), Kenyan artist
Miriam Timothy (1879–1950), British harpist
Miriam Toews (born 1964), Canadian author
Miriam Beizana Vigo (born 1990), Spanish writer and literary critic
Miriam Weeks (born 1995), pseudonym Belle Knox, American former pornographic actress
Miriam Yalan-Shteklis (1900–1984), Israeli writer and poet
Miriam Zetter (born 1989), Mexican ten-pin bowler

People named Myriam

The letter y in the transliteration Miryam represents the palatal glide /j/. The metathesized spelling Myriam has also gained some currency,^{[year needed]} especially in France, alongside Miriam and Miryam.

The name of Israeli or Lebanese people called "Miriam" may be transliterated Miryam or Myriam depending on whether the context of the transliteration is French or English.

Myriam Abel or Myriam Morea (born 1981), French singer of Algerian descent
Myriam Baverel (born 1981), French martial artist
Myriam Bédard (born 1969), retired Canadian athlete
Myriam Bru (born 1930), French actress
Myriam Birger (born 1951), French pianist
Myriam Boileau (born 1977), Canadian diver
Myriam Casanova (born 1985), Swiss tennis player
Myriam Montemayor Cruz (born 1981), Mexican pop star known as "Myriam"
Myriam Fares (born 1983), Lebanese singer
Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (born 1961), French canoeist
Myriam Glez (born 1980), French swimmer
Myriam Hernández (born 1967), Chilean singer-songwriter and television presenter
Myriam Korfanty (born 1978), French handball player
Myriam Leuenberger (born 1987), Swiss figure skater
Myriam Lignot (born 1975), French synchronized swimmer
Myriam Léonie Mani (born 1977), Cameroonian athlete
Myriam Marbe (1931–1997), Romanian composer and pianist
Myriam Merlet (c. 1957–2010), Haitian political activist
Myriam Moscona (born 1955), Mexican journalist
Myriam Muller (born 1971), Luxembourgian actress
Myriam Palacios (1936–2013), Chilean actress and comedian
Myriam Sarachik (1933–2021), Belgian physicist
Myriam Shehab (born 1982), Lebanese singer
Myriam Sienra (1939–2020), Paraguayan actress
Myriam Sirois (born 1975), Canadian actress
Myriam Soumaré (born 1986), French athlete
Myriam Vanlerberghe (born 1961), Belgian politician
Myriam Verreault, Canadian film director and screenwriter
Myriam Yardeni (1932–2015), Romanian-born Israeli historian

Fictional characters

Miriam, a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Marble Faun (1860)
Miriam Rooth in Henry James's novel The Tragic Muse (1890)
Miriam Leveirs in D.H. Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers (1913)
Miriam, the title character (or characters) of Truman Capote's eponymous short story, his first widely acclaimed fictional work from 1949
Miriam Blaylock in the 1983 film The Hunger
Miriam Godwinson, a faction leader in the video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999)
Miriam Haywood, a.k.a. Atsuko Senoo, in the anime/manga series Ojamajo Doremi
Miriam in The Thieves of Ostia (2001)
Miriam Pataki in the cartoon Hey Arnold! (2004)
Miriam, the fictional protagonist of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and a playable character in its companion game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
Miriam, a.k.a. Queen Marion, in the Italian animated series Winx Club (2004)
Myriam Scuttlebutt in the video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Dual Destinies (2013)^{[importance?]}
Miriam “Midge” Maisel, the titular character in the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017)
Miriam Mendelsohn, a character in Disney/Pixar's 2022 animated film Turning Red
Miramir, a minor Star Wars character who is the mother of Rey
Miriam Jacobs is a one-off character in Philip Pullman's The Secret Commonwealth
Miriam is the school nurse in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

References

^ What's in a Name? 25 Jewish Stories (in German, English, and French). Biel: Jewish Museum of Switzerland. 2022. ISBN 978-3-907262-34-4.
^ Dan Isaac Slobin, The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, p. 342
^ ^a ^b ^c "Though the meaning of Mary as derived from the Egyptian Mery, Meryt (cherished, beloved), is most suitable for an only daughter, such a derivation is only possible, or at best barely probable." A. Maas, "The Name of Mary", The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
^ "Jerome (4th century AD) suggested relations with the word מאור (ma'or), meaning star, from the verb אור ('or), to be light or shine. Combined with the word ימ (yam), sea, the name Miriam would translate to Stella Maris (star of the sea), but that strikes as a very free interpretation.", "Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Miriam", Abarim Publications
^ Rashi. "Commentary on Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs)". p. 2:13. "From the time that Miriam was born, the Egyptians intensified the bondage upon Israel; therefore, she was called Miriam, because they made it bitter (מַר) for them."

External links

Behind the Name: Mary
Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Miriam, Abarim Publications

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