Meryem
A Turkish form of Maryam, Hebrew at its root. Rare in Poland, given to around 145 women in total, but climbing: last year brought more newborn girls than any year before it.
Meryem Pronunciation
Meryem is pronounced me-RIH-em (/mɛˈrɨɛm/).
What Meryem means
Where Meryem comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Meryem is the Turkish form of Maryam, and behind Maryam stands the Hebrew name Miriam. The Hebrew root is old and much argued over, so the tidy gloss "beloved" attached to the name later rather than at its birth. In Turkish the sense settled as beloved of God, the reading a Polish family meets first if they look it up.
The name matters in Turkey because it belongs to the mother of Isa, the Jesus of the Quran. The nineteenth chapter of the Quran is titled Meryem, the only chapter named for a woman. A Turkish girl who bears it shares a name read aloud in mosques and printed in every copy of the book.
In Poland the name is rare. On a class register in Kraków, Meryem would sit among the Marias and Marysias while few readers noticed the shared source. The line runs back through Maryam to Miriam, and the meaning fixed to it in Turkish is ukochana, beloved.
How many people are named Meryem
1 in 155475 women in Poland is named Meryem. 145 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2702 among female names.
Meryem's popularity over time
6 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #879 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2024.
Where parents choose Meryem
Meryem is most popular in Masovian, 510% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Masovian
+510%1 in 177,133 babies
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Masovian+510% 2 born1 in 177,133 babies+510%
Meryem as a middle name
Meryem is a first name for 145 women in Poland and a middle name for another 40, a 78/22 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1095th, between Martine (40) and Rebeca (40).
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#1093 Larisa40
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#1094 Martine40
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#1095 Meryem40
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#1096 Rebeca40
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#1097 Soraya40