Name Maria - meaning, origin, numerology

Maria is a female (but occasionally male) given name in many diverse cultures, including African, Arab, Armenian, Croatian, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Hispanic American and Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Pakistani, Afghan, Serbian, Swedish, Indonesian, among others.

In the Roman Empire, the name was used as a feminine form of the Roman name Marius (see Maria (gens)). It became popular with the spread of Christianity as a Latinized form of the Hebrew name of Jesus' mother Mary (Miriam in Hebrew or Maryam in Aramaic). As a result of their similarity and syncretism, the Latin original name Maria and the Hebrew-derived Maria combined to form a single name. The meaning of the Semitic-rooted name is uncertain, but it may originally be an Egyptian name, probably derived from mry "beloved" or mr "love" ("eminent lady" or "beloved lady"). The meaning of the Latin-rooted name is similarly ambiguous, possibly deriving from mare ("sea" in Latin), maris ("male"), or the name of the god Mars.

Historically, the name was also sometimes used as a male (middle) name. This was the case in many Central European countries, where it signified patronage of the Virgin Mary.

As a first name, Maria ranked seventh out of 4,275 for females of all ages in the 1990 U.S. Census. Because of its enduring popularity, the name is used extensively in society and media throughout the world.

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Latin form of Mary, still used in most European languages, either as the main local form of the name, as in Italian, Spanish (María), Portuguese, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Polish, and Czech, or as a learned doublet of a vernacular form. In English it is a learned revival dating from the 18th century, pronounced both /mə'ri:ə/ and, more traditionally, /mə'raiə/. The original Latin name Maria arose as a back-formation from the early Christian female name Mariam. This was taken as an accusative case, with the usual Latin feminine accusative ending -am. In fact, however, it is an indeclinable Aramaic alternative form of the Hebrew name Miriam. This form of the name is in common use in most European languages; for example, it was the most common of all female names in Sweden in 1973. In Spain not only is the name María itself enormously common, but a large number of Marian epithets and words associated with the cult of the Virgin are also used as female given names. Maria is also used as a male name in combinations such as Giammaria (Italian) and José María (Spanish).
Short form: Ria.
Cognates and pet forms: see Mary.
Masculine forms: Marius. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese: Mario.

The section "History and Origin" of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Maria (given name)"; that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.