Name Awesome

Meryem

#4,835 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly to be bitter, through מרים

Meryem has been given to 624 babies in the U.S. since 1992. In 2025 it ranked #4,835 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2014, with 39 recorded.

Babies named Meryem, 2025

1 in 118,000

Meryem over time, 1880–2025

Girls
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Meryem: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to be bitter, through מרים

Arabic

What Meryem means

Meryem belongs to the name family reached through Meryem → מרים. Its meaning is “to be bitter”.

Origin, language, and formation

Meryem is used in Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Meryem comes through Ottoman Turkish مریم, Arabic مَرْيَم and Hebrew מרים.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Mary and מרים.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Turkish, Meryem is pronounced /mɛɾˈjɛm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 624 girls were recorded with the name Meryem between 1992 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 39 in 2014; its best national rank was #3,890 in 2019.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #5,432 in 2020 to #4,835 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,074 in 2015 to #4,835 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Meryem?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 118,000
28 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 57,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,835
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
82,069 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Meryem sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 82,069 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Meryem. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Meryems were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Meryem was born before 2015 — so the typical Meryem is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
45.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
92.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
624
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 45.4% of all recorded uses (283).

Is Meryem rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−206
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+597
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+239
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.04×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
71.8%
Peak was 2014 (39)
Years since peak
11
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,890
2019

Spellings of Meryem

Meryem is not the most common spelling — Merle is, with 38.0% against Meryem's 1.6%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Meryem is used

Across 1910–2025, Meryem was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 645,982 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Ohio1 in —
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —
  6. 6Virginia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Meryem has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Meryem around the world

Where Meryem ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #2,278
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2025–2025
    #718
    in 2025
  • France
    1912–2025
    #272
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1993–2024
    #1,709
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1973–2009
    #818
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Meryem by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,835
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 597
Best rank ever
#3,890
2019
Peak year
2014
39 that year
First recorded
1992
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
624
Count in 2025
28

Names similar to Meryem

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MeraryMercieMerlinMerrynMerariMerrinMeridaMerrickMerlynMercerMerciMerrilyMerriamMerisaMeritMertisMeraMerynMeriahMeryMeryleMerritMerielMeral

Sibling names for Meryem

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Meryem

Top names of 2014, Meryem's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2019Girls' names starting with MTurkish Girl Names