Mary
Meaning of Mary
Mary, pronounced MAIR-ee/MEH-ree, drifts through history like a timeless hymn—at once simple on the tongue and grand in resonance. Born from the ancient Hebrew Miryam and baptized in Latin as Maria, the name means “beloved,” “wished-for child,” and, to some scholars, “star of the sea,” a trio of meanings that lets parents choose the shade that suits their hopes. From the quiet candles of medieval cathedrals—Ave Maria echoing in vaulted stone—to modern playgrounds where it still ranks comfortably inside America’s Top 150, Mary proves she can dance through centuries without scuffing her shoes. She carries a saintly halo thanks to the Virgin Mary, yet she also shows a mischievous wink in nursery rhymes (“had a little lamb…”) and Beatles lyrics (“Let it be”). Queens of Scots, literary heroines, and everyday neighbors have worn her, each adding a stitch to a vast cultural quilt. In short, Mary is that rare classic whose familiarity feels like family; she greets the world with an easy smile, needs no spelling tutorials, and brings a quiet majesty that whispers—in gentle Latin—mater gratiae, “mother of grace.”
Pronunciation
American English
- Pronunced as MAIR-ee (/ˈmɑri/)
British English
- Pronunced as MEH-ree (/ˈmɛri/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Mary
| Mary Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the 1818 early science fiction novel Frankenstein, promoted the work of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and was the daughter of philosophers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. |
| Mary Jane Seacole was a pioneering British nurse and entrepreneur who cared for soldiers in the Crimean War and wrote the first autobiography by a black woman in Britain. |
| Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, and actress known as the Queen of Hip Hop Soul and the Queen of R and B, with nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Awards, twelve NAACP Image Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards including the Billboard Icon Award. |
| Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and philosopher whose life and works helped found modern feminism and advance women's rights. |
| Mary of Burgundy, called the Rich, ruled much of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1477 to 1482 and sought to reclaim Burgundian lands seized by King Louis XI, including the Duchy and Free County of Burgundy. |
| Mary Elizabeth Surratt, a Washington boardinghouse owner, was convicted in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy and hanged in 1865, becoming the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government, a case still widely debated. |
| Mary Dyer, an English-born Puritan turned Quaker, was hanged in Boston for defying a ban on Quakers and is remembered as one of the Boston martyrs. |
| Mary Anning was an English fossil hunter and pioneering paleontologist whose Lyme Regis Jurassic discoveries transformed understanding of prehistoric life and the history of Earth. |
| Mary Patricia McAleese is an Irish lawyer and academic who served as president of Ireland from 1997 to 2011, becoming the second female president, the first woman to succeed another woman, and the first president from Northern Ireland. |
| Constance Mary Whitehouse was a British teacher and hard line social conservative who, driven by Christian faith and her sex education work, founded the National Viewers and Listeners Association and led campaigns against social liberalism and the BBC. |
| Mary Robinson - Mary Therese Winifred Robinson is an Irish politician who was the first female and first independent president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and later served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. |
| Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator and civil rights leader who founded the National Council of Negro Women, created the Aframerican Womens Journal, led major Black womens organizations, and became the first Black woman to head a federal agency as leader of the NYA. |
| Mary Pickford was a Canadian American film pioneer and silent era superstar who became the first Hollywood millionaire, wielded rare creative control as a producer, helped define the ingenue, and was known as Americas Sweetheart and the Queen of the Movies. |
| British philosopher Mary Midgley, a Newcastle University lecturer, wrote influential books on science, ethics, and animal rights, earned honorary doctorates, and published the memoir The Owl of Minerva. |
| Mary Todd Lincoln served as First Lady of the United States from 1861 until President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. |
