Masterpiece Generator Name Generator
How popular is the name Miriam?
Births per year, rank history and how many Miriams are alive today.
Miriam (female) sits just outside the top 100 girls' names in England and Wales, ranked 237th in 2025 with 197 babies given the name. This spelling of the name peaked in 1904, when around 610 babies were given the name, the 94th most popular that year. Its fortunes dipped to rank 398 in 2011 before climbing back to the 237th place it holds today. Numbers have been stable in recent years. At least 40,000 babies have been named Miriam in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Miriam is one spelling of a name also recorded as Myriam; the combined figures below cover every spelling.
Across all spellings of the name, the Miriam you are most likely to meet is around 71 years old - or else around 3: the name has two living generations. Half of all Miriams born in England and Wales are between 36 and 76, and there are at least 21,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 6.5% chance that at least one of them will be called Miriam.
How many babies are named Miriam each year?
Includes all spellings: Miriam, Myriam. Figures before 1996 are estimates.
Where does the Miriam spelling rank?
Where does the Myriam spelling rank?
Where this data comes from
Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.
One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.
Common questions
When was the name Miriam most popular?
Miriam peaked in 1904, when around 610 babies in England and Wales were given the name across all spellings.
How many people are called Miriam?
At least 21,000 people named Miriam in any spelling born in England and Wales are alive today.
How old is the typical Miriam?
Most living Miriams are between 36 and 76; the most common age is about 71. There is a second cluster around 3.
Is Miriam becoming more or less popular?
Broadly steady in recent years.