Mary  ·  Maryam

Mary in Islam

Mary is Maryam in Arabic, written مَرْيَم. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell her story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.

English
Mary
Arabic
مَرْيَم
Read as
Maryam
Status
Named in the Quran, Surah 19 carries her name
Where the English comes from
Hebrew Miryam, of uncertain meaning; bitterness, beloved and wished-for child have all been proposed.
What the Arabic carries
Maryam, the Quranic form, mother of the prophet Isa.
Full name page
Maryam on AsrNaam

Is Mary the same as Maryam? Yes. Mary is the English form and Maryam the Arabic form of one name. She is the only woman the Quran names, and the nineteenth chapter carries her name.

Maryam in the Quran

Maryam is the only woman named in the Quran. Every other woman in the book is described by relation, as the wife of, the mother of, the daughter of. Maryam is named, and then a chapter is named after her: Surah Maryam, the nineteenth chapter, which opens with the birth of Yahya and moves into her own account.

The Quran describes her as chosen and purified above the women of the worlds, and gives the annunciation, the birth beneath the palm, and her vow of silence afterwards. Surah Al-Imran adds her childhood in the temple and her guardian Zakariyya. She is the mother of a prophet and is not herself called one, a distinction Islamic scholarship has debated for centuries without settling.

Maryam is among the most-used girls' names in the Muslim world, and one of the very few that a Muslim, a Christian and a Jewish family can each give a daughter while meaning something recognisably the same.

Using the name

The full entry for Maryam carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.

Open the full Maryam page →

Questions about Mary and Maryam

Is Mary the same name as Maryam?
Mary is the English form and Maryam is the Arabic form of the same name. They refer to the same figure.
Is Maryam the same as Mary?
Yes. Maryam is the Arabic form of the Hebrew Miryam, and the Quran and the Gospels are speaking of the same woman, the mother of Jesus.
Is Maryam mentioned in the Quran by name?
Yes, and she is the only woman in the Quran named directly. Chapter 19 carries her name.
Can a Muslim family use the name Maryam?
Yes. Maryam is used as a given name across the Muslim world. AsrNaam carries its full page with the Arabic spelling, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading.

Other names the two traditions share

Every one of these is one figure under two names.

Jesus and IsaMoses and MusaAbraham and IbrahimJoseph and YusufDavid and DawudSolomon and SulaymanNoah and NuhJohn and YahyaJacob and YaqubJonah and YunusJob and AyyubAaron and HarunIsaac and IshaqIshmael and Ismail

Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.