Mary

Where Mary comes from

From Middle English Marie, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic מַרְיָם (Maryām), from Biblical Hebrew מִרְיָם (Miryām), of uncertain meaning. (See the Hebrew entry for more.) Doublet of Miriam, Marie, Maria, and Mariah.
— Wiktionary's entry for Mary
  • Aramaic
  • Hebrew
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1759
    Mary Wollstonecraft born
    English writer and intellectual
  2. 1797
    Mary Shelley born
    English writer
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #1 among girls — 7,065 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1921
    Peak, #1
    73,984 babies named Mary — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1965
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #2.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Aramaic or Hebrew.
Namesakes
  • Mary Shelley · English writer, 1797–1851
  • Mary Wollstonecraft · English writer and intellectual, 1759–1797
  • Mary Magdalene · follower of Jesus, died 100
  • Mary I · Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 to 1558, 1516–1558
  • Mary Pickford · Canadian actress and producer, 1892–1979

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.