Entry № 6580 · Hebrew origin

Mary Mary — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MAIR-ee /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"Beloved (the mother of Jesus; most common Christian feminine name)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Ancient (Hebrew)

A name that means "beloved (the mother of jesus; most common christian feminine name)".

Mary is the English form of the Hebrew Miryam (Miriam) — of uncertain etymology, often glossed as "beloved," "bitter," or "sea of bitterness." The mother of Jesus of Nazareth — the most venerated female figure in Christianity and a major figure in Islam (as Maryam). For most of recorded English history Mary was the single most common feminine name in the language, dominating from the medieval period until the 1960s.

Beloved (the mother of Jesus; most common Christian feminine name) — a Hebrew name.

The name in its native script.

Mary
Transliteration
Mary
Pronunciation
/ ˈmɛər.i /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Mary stands.

Mary does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Marys before her.

Real people
Mary, mother of Jesus
Most venerated woman in Christianity.
1st c. BCE
Mary Wollstonecraft
English feminist philosopher.
1759 – 1797
Mary Shelley
Author of Frankenstein.
1797 – 1851
In fiction
Mary
The Secret Garden.
1911

Names connected to Mary.

The number behind Mary.

3

The Communicator

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Mary reduce to 3, The Communicator. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.