Miriam (given name)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Miriam | |
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| Gender | female |
| Meaning | "bitter" |
| Origin | Hebrew |
| Nicknames | Mimi, Miri |
| Related names | Maria, Mariamne, Mary, Maryam, Miryam |
| Wikipedia articles | All pages beginning with Miriam |
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Look up Miriam in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Miriam is an ancient female Hebrew given name (מִרְיָם) that has taken on many other forms in other languages and cultures, including the English name Mary.
[edit] Origin and variants
Its earliest appearance in writing may be in the biblical Book of Exodus, in which the elder sister of Moses is called Miriam.
The Hebrew: מִרְיָם, Modern Miryam Tiberian Miryām means either "wished for child", "bitter" or "rebellious", but it might be derived originally from an Egyptian name, myr "beloved" or mr "love",[1] or even Meryamun "beloved of Amun".[2]
Mary, the mother of Jesus, bore a Judeo-Aramaic variant of this name, Maryām (מרים). In the New Testament of the Bible, written in Greek, her name is transformed to Mariam or Maria. Several other women in the New Testament, including Mary Magdalene, are called by the same name. Because of Mary's great significance to two world religions, variants of her name are often given to girl children in both Christian and Islamic cultures. The Greek variant Maria passed into Latin and many modern European languages. In the Quran, Mary's name assumed the Arabic form Maryam (مريم), which has also passed into other languages.
Variants of the name include Mary, Myriam, Maria and Mariam. In Israel, "Mimi" is a common diminutive.[3]
[edit] Famous people named Miriam
- Miriam, the sister of Moses
- Miriam (entertainer) (born c. 1981), Mexican transwoman who starred in There's Something About Miriam
- Miriam Flynn (born 1952), American voice artist and character actress
- Miriam Gallardo (born 1968), Peruvian volleyball player
- Miriam Gonzalez (born 1977), Playboy playmate
- Miriam Leslie (1828-1914), American author, publisher, woman suffrage advocate, and philanthropist
- Miriam McDonald(*born 1987) Canadian actresss, and a star of Degrassi: The Next Generation
- Miriam Makeba (born 1932), South African singer and activist
- Miriam Margolyes (born 1941), a British actress
- Miriam Ramón (born 1973), Ecuadorian racewalker
- Miriam Shaviv (born 1976), literary editor of the Jerusalem Post
- Miriam Stockley (born 1962), English South African-born singer
- Miriam Stoppard (born 1937), British physician, author, television presenter, and agony aunt
- Miriam Toews (born 1964), Canadian author
- Miriam Yeung (born 1974), Hong Kong singer-actress
[edit] Fictional characters
- Miriam ben Mordecai in The Roman Mysteries
- Miriam Blaylock in 1983 movie The Hunger
- Miriam Leveirs in D.H. Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers
[edit] See also
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Look up Appendix:Names derived from Miryam in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
[edit] References
- ^ Behind The Name
- ^ Holly Ingraham, People's names: A Cross-Cultural Guide to the Proper Use of Over 40,000 Names in Over One Hundred Culture Groups (1997). This suggested etymology is disputed; as a female name it would be "Meritamun", which is not that close in pronunciation.
- ^ Dan Isaac Slobin, The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, p.342
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