Gulam

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Gulam is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name205K records spelled Gulam6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, United States, Iran

  Also written Ġulām, Ġulam, Gulāṃ, Ḡulām, Gulām

• Swahili given name1.7K records spelled Gulam4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, South Africa, United States

  Also written Gülam

• Bulgarian given name1.5K records spelled Gulam9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Afghanistan

  Languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian

  Also written Гулам

• Urdu given name649 records spelled Gulam71 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Pakistan, India, United States, Afghanistan

  Languages: Urdu, Hindi, English

  Also written Ghulam, กุลาม, Ghulām, Gulom, G̲h̲ulām

• Russian given name464 records spelled Gulam21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

  Also written Гулам, Ghulam, Гулям, Гхулам, Ghoulam

• Uzbek given name188 records spelled Gulam3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye

  Also written Ğulam, Gulâm

29 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Gulam is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In qfa-yen-pro, covering, lid

  as a word·StarLing Tower of Babel etymological databases (Starostin et al.)

• In Latin, accusative singular of gula

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 104 years between 1899–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ghulam Muhammad Din Purib. 1835PKnot in their usual nameIslamic scholar
• Ghulam Rasool Alampurib. 1849not in their usual namePunjabi poet
• The Great Gamab. 1878PKnot in their usual nameIndian and Pakistani professional wrestler
• Gulam Yahya Daneshianb. 1906IRpolitician, major general
• Ghulam Abbasb. 1909PKnot in their usual namewriter (1909–1982)
• Ghulam Azamb. 1922BDnot in their usual nameBangladeshi politician (1922-2014)
• Ghulam Guardb. 1925INnot in their usual nameIndian cricketer (1925-1978)
• Ghulam Murshidb. 1940BDnot in their usual nameBangladeshi writer and journalist (1940–2024)
• Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvib. 1950INnot in their usual nameIndian Muslim Scholar
• Ghulam MustafaPKnot in their usual namePakistan Amry general

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 251 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Gulam?

We estimate roughly 321 people bear Gulam (counting its spellings and scripts) across 2 countries in our records.

In which country does Gulam have the most bearers?

Gulam is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled gulam.

How common is Gulam compared with other names?

In India, Gulam is the 804th most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

Is Gulam a male or female name?

Gulam is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.