Miriam

Miriam is the oldest recorded form of what would become Maria and Mary — it belongs to the sister of Moses in Exodus, who watched the basket drift downriver and later led the Israelite women in song after the crossing of the Red Sea. The Hebrew root is contested but most likely ties to bitterness or beloved. Miriam Makeba took it to global stages; Miriam Margolyes gave it to British stage and screen. The name has held a quiet American presence since the nineteenth century and sits now in the top 300, favored in Jewish, Latin American, and Arab-American families alike. Three syllables, ancient and unhurried.