2. Mariam
• Maryam or Mariam is the Aramaic form of the
biblical name Miriam. It is notably the name
of Mary the mother of Jesus.The spelling in
the Semitic abjads is mrym, which may be
transliterated in a number of ways.
• Via its use in the NewTestament the name has
been adopted worldwide, especially in Roman
Catholicism, but also in Eastern Christianity,
in Protestantism, and in Islam. In Latin Christianity,
the Greek form Mariam was adopted as
latinate Maria. Forms retaining the final -m are
found throughout the Middle East,
in Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Urdu, and Persian,
as well as the Horn of Africa,
including Amharic and Somali,Turkish Meryem and
the Azerbaijani Məryəm.
3. Etymology
• The name may have originated from the Egyptian language; in
a suggestion going back to 1897, it is possibly derivative of the
root mr"love; beloved". Maas references a 1906 suggestion
interpreting the name as "beloved of Yahweh". Maas further
proposes possible derivation from Hebrew, either
from marah "to be rebellious", or from mara "well nourished".
• The name has a long tradition of scholarly etymologisation;
some seventy suggestions are treated by Otto Bardenhewer in
monographic form in his Der Name Maria. It was early
etymologized as containing the Hebrew root mr "bitter",
or mry"rebellious". St. Jerome, following Eusebius of Caesarea,
translates the name as "drop of the sea", from Hebrew
מרmar "drop" and יםyam "sea".This translation was
subsequently rendered stella maris due to scribal error,
whence theVirgin Mary's title Star of the Sea.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 for her
people.
4. Modern
given name
• Modern given names derived from Aramaic Maryam are
extremely frequent in Christian culture, and, to a lesser extent,
due to the Quranic tradition of Mary, the name is also not
infrequently given in Islamic cultures.There are a large
number of variants and derivations.
• The NewTestament gives the name as
both Mariam and Maria.The LatinVulgate uses the first
declension, Maria.
• Maryam is the now-usual English-language rendition of the
Arabic name.The spelling Mariyam is sometimes used as a
close transcription from Hebrew, Aramaic or
Arabic. Mariyam is also current as the spelling used in
the Maldives.
• The spelling Mariam is current in transliteration
from Georgian andArmenian, and in German-language
transliteration from Aramaic or Arabic. Mariam was also a
current spelling in early modern English, as in the Jacobean
era play TheTragedy of Mariam.
5. Derived names
• Maryam as the name of Mary mother of
Jesus is also part of given names consisting
of genitive constructions in Ethiopian
tradition, such as Haile Mariam "power of
Mary", Baeda Maryam "Hand of
Mary", Newaya Maryam "Property of Mary"
or Takla Maryam "Plant of Mary", used as
masculine given names.
• Ustad Ali Maryam, architect in 19th century
Persia, added Maryam to his name after
building a house for an important woman
with that name.
