The story of the name
The mother of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ﷺ
Maria al-Qibtiyya (RA) — Maria the Copt — came to the Prophet's ﷺ household from Egypt around 7 AH, sent by its ruler al-Muqawqis along with her sister Sirin, in response to the Prophet's ﷺ invitation to Islam. She embraced the faith, and became the mother of the Prophet's ﷺ son Ibrahim — his last child, the only one born in Madinah, and the child of his later years.
His birth brought the Prophet ﷺ visible joy. Anas (RA) narrated his announcement: "a son was born to me tonight, and I have named him after my father Ibrahim" (Muslim 2315). Ibrahim died in infancy at approximately sixteen to eighteen months of age. When he died, the Prophet ﷺ held him and wept, and gave the ummah its lasting measure of how a believer grieves: "the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord — and indeed, O Ibrahim, we are grieved by your separation" (Bukhari 1303; Muslim 2315).
Her standing in the household
Maria (RA) was not one of the Mothers of the Believers. The overwhelming majority of Sunni scholars — Ibn Hajar, al-Nawawi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-Qayyim among them — hold that she was the Prophet's ﷺ bondwoman who, on giving birth to his child, attained the recognized legal status of Umm al-Walad: she could no longer be sold, and she became free upon his ﷺ passing. This is a matter of legal categorization, not of honor. Her place in the household and the dignity accorded her are not in question — only the specific title.
She outlived the Prophet ﷺ by several years, passing during Umar's caliphate around 16 AH. He led her funeral prayer himself, and she was buried at Jannat al-Baqi.
A name carried across a border
Her name is the Coptic sister of Maryam — carried from Egypt into the most honored household on earth. The classical scholars noticed a symmetry in it: two Egyptian women, each given to a prophet by an Egyptian ruler, each bearing that prophet a son whose name carried enormous weight in the line of prophecy — Ismail for Ibrahim (AS), and Ibrahim for Muhammad ﷺ.
To carry this name
To carry this name is to be honored for what you carry rather than where you began — a stranger in a new land whose child was beloved to the best of creation ﷺ.