Maria (given name)

Gender	Female
Language(s)	Hebrew, Greek, Latin
Meaning	"wished-for child", "beloved", "love", "star of the sea"
Related names	Mary Meriam Marie

Maria is a female given name in many diverse languages, including the African, Arab, Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Spanish, Icelandic, Indonesian, Iranic, Italian, Japanese, Maltese, Norwegian, Pakistani, Philippine, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Swedish, and Ukrainian.

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.

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