Marjan: meaning “pearl-like”, origin & popularity

Meaning & origin

What it means

Marjan is a romanization of Маржан. Маржан goes back to Classical Syriac ܡܪܰܓܳܢ (margān), meaning “pearl-like.”

Explained through its name family

Where it comes from

An origin associated with this spelling is Polish.

How it developed

Marjan is used as a form of Mary.

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1949. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Marjan through the years

Babies since 1880: 269; 0 boys · 269 girls
Most popular year: 2022; 16 babies
2025: 13; #8,168 for girls
2021–25 vs 2016–20: +100%; Rising fast

Marjan in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1949–2025, per million girls born. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

In 2025, this name appeared in 13 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 8,168 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,701 as a first name in 2020; a sample rank of No. 55,671 among surnames in 1990.

From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.

Marjan’s family of names

In Serbo-Croatian usage, Marjan developed from the Latin form Marius. Marjan is a form of Mary. Marjan has a conventional equivalent in the English form Mario.

Walk Marjan’s family in the name graph

Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Around the world

Marjan has relatives in 10 languages. Lines run from its Polish roots to each of them.

Polishwhere Marjan comes from · 1 name

Marian

Each dot marks where a language is rooted, not where people with the name live today. Bigger dots hold more names. Dots on the border stand for languages further away. Language locations from Glottolog (CC BY 4.0); map from Natural Earth.

Nicknames & forms 7

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Spellings & scripts 2

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

Across languages 10

Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.

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People named Marjan

Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.

Similar names

If you love Marjan, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

Biblical Hebrew · Biblical

Sibling ideas

Names that share Marjan’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.

A brother for Marjan

A sister for Marjan

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Marjan