Mary

From Namespedia - Names Meaning and Origins

Name: Mary

Gender: Feminine

Origin: Asia

Language: Jewish

Thematic: Biblical

Meaning: Love, beloved.

Comments: Mary is the English form of Maria, the Latin transcription of the New Testament Greek name Mariam, which comes from the Hebrew name Maryam or Miryam. (The name was pronounced differently in different dialects.) It was the name given to the mother of Jesus, presumably in honor of Moses' and Aaron's sister, the only woman who bears this name in the Old Testament. Its meaning is very uncertain. In 1895 the scholar Otto Bardenhewer discussed about seventy proposed Hebrew meanings. Some of these, not in any order of probability, are 'rebellious one', 'sorrowful one', 'wished for child', 'hope', 'myrrh', 'bitter sea', 'drop of the sea', 'strong one', 'healed one' and 'beautiful one'. Since there are serious difficulties with all the proposed Hebrew meanings, there is now growing support for the theory advanced by the Jesuit scholar Franz von Hummelauer in 1897 that the name is actually of Egyptian origin. Moses (Mosheh), Aaron (Aharon) and Miriam (Maryam) were all born in Egypt, where the Israelites had been living for some two centuries. Moses is definitely an Egyptian name, and so, most probably, is Aaron. (It certainly has no obvious Hebrew derivation.) It is therefore quite possible, or even likely, that the same applies to the name of their sister. James K. Hoffmeier, in his book "Ancient Israel in Sinai" (2005), discusses several names from the Torah (the Jewish name for the first five books of the Bible) that are of certain or probable Egyptian origin. Maryam, he writes, 'appears to have an Egyptian name. Although there are different linguistic explanations for the second "mem", there is agreement that "mary" is the writing of the root "mry", meaning "love" or "beloved"... This is behind the name Mary in the New Testament, and of course continues to be used in the twenty-first century' (p. 225).