Marwa — Name Meaning in Islam

Root: م-ر-و (m-r-w). Marwa is the single unit of marw: a hard, white stone — the flint that throws a spark when struck. The hill in Makkah takes its name from the stone, not the other way round, and the name therefore carries a sense of brightness and hardness together.

From the same root: marw (white quartz stones, collectively), marwān (a stony place, and the source of the man's name Marwān), maraw used of ground strewn with such stones. The hill itself is named in the Qur'an at al-Baqara 2:158, where as-Safa and al-Marwa are called among the sacred symbols of God; the walking between the two, the saʿy, is part of hajj and umrah, and the two rises now stand enclosed within the Sacred Mosque.

Spellings: Marwa, Marwah, Merve (Turkish), Marwah (Indonesian), Marwa (Urdu), Marwa (French and Maghrebi), مروة.

Pronunciation: MAR-wa, stress on the first syllable. The r is tapped once, as in Spanish pero, not the English glide; the w is a full consonant, so the name is two clean syllables rather than three.

Masculine counterpart: Marwān, formed from the same word for stony ground.