Girls' Names in the Quran and Their Meanings (with Abjad Values)

Ask a group of parents-to-be how many women are named in the Quran and the guesses usually run high. The answer is one. Maryam (Meryem in Turkish), the mother of Jesus, is the only woman mentioned by name, and Sura 19 carries her name. Eve, Asiya, Sarah, Hagar: their stories are told, but their names never appear. And names such as Kevser, Tuba, Büşra or Sidre are not women's names in the Quran at all; they are Quranic words.

That distinction sounds small, yet it matters a great deal when you search for a name. "A name from the Quran" can mean three different things, so the list below, made up of names widely used in Turkey and across the Muslim world, is split into two tables.

Three categories: proper name, story, word

• Proper name: appears in the Quran as a person's name. Among women, only Maryam.
• A woman whose story is told: the verses call her "his wife", "her mother" or "a woman"; we know her name from exegesis and historical sources.
• Quranic word: a word for a concept, place or beauty that later became a girl's name (Nur, Kevser, Sekine…).

The Abjad values in the tables come from the letters of each name's Arabic spelling, using the standard major Abjad (ebced-i kebîr): the article "al-" and doubling marks are not counted, ة (ta marbuta) counts as 5 and a standalone hamza (ء) as 0. A different spelling gives a different value.

Table 1: The only woman named in the Quran, and women whose stories it tells

Apart from Maryam, none of these names appears in the Quran; they are the names by which exegesis and history remember women whose stories the Quran tells. If you choose Asiya or Hagar, "the name of a woman from a Quranic story" is more accurate than "a name in the Quran".

Table 2: Girls' names taken from Quranic words

For each word we give one verse where it occurs as an example; most occur in several places. Reading the verse in a translation also gives you the story behind the name to share with your daughter one day.

A few notes on the table

• Safa and Merve occur together in the same verse, Al-Baqara 2:158: both are the hills beside the Kaaba, which makes them a meaningful pair of names for sisters.
• Sena is two different words. سنا in An-Nur 24:43 means "gleam"; the common Turkish name Sena meaning "praise" is spelled ثناء and is not this word.
• Kevser appears in the verse as "al-Kawthar", with the article; the name drops it, and the Abjad value is calculated without it.
• Sidre, Selsebil, Tesnim and Firdevs come from descriptions of Paradise; lovely in meaning but long to pronounce, they are often chosen as middle names.

True or false? Five names that are often confused

"Zehra is in the Quran." Not in this form. Ta-Ha 20:131 has the word zahra, "the adornment of worldly life"; Zehra (زهراء, "radiant") is a different word.

"Hatice, Fatma, Ayşe and Zeynep are in the Quran." They are not. These are names of women from the Prophet's household; beloved as they are, they do not appear in the Quran as names.

"Rahime and Emine are Quranic names." By root yes, by word no: the Quran has rahim and amin, but not the feminine forms Rahime and Emine. "Names whose root occurs in the Quran" is the better description.

"The cave of Hira is named in the Quran." It is not; the name Hira comes from the biographies of the Prophet.

"Every Quranic word can be a name." It cannot. Scholars stress that a name's beautiful meaning matters more than its mere presence in the Quran; a word used in a negative context is not chosen as a name.

What an Abjad value tells you, and what it does not

Here is a curious pair: Safa (صفا) and Yasemin (ياسمين), a name not found in the Quran, both add up to 171. Same number, entirely different letters. Safa reaches the total with three letters, Yasemin with six, and their letters fall into quite different elements. In the Abjad tradition a name's character is read not from the total alone but from the elements of its letters, and from whose names it stands beside.

That is where the real question for a baby name begins: when this name joins the mother's and father's names, how does it change the family's element map? Does it strengthen an element that already dominates, or complete one that is missing? On its own, 290 or 726 is just a number; it gains meaning when it is read together with a family's names.

A short checklist before you decide

1. Meaning: read the verse and its context in a translation.
2. Category: proper name, story or word? Use the accurate description when you tell others.
3. Spelling: settle the Arabic spelling; the Abjad value depends on the letters.
4. Sound: say it aloud with your surname; consider long names as middle names.
5. Family harmony: the Abjad tradition recommends weighing a name together with the parents' names.

Note: This article is for general information. Abjad values and element readings are symbolic interpretations rooted in tradition; they make no judgement or guarantee about destiny, health or the future. The final choice of a name rests with the family.