Many European and Asian peoples have a name corresponding to the biblical name Mary. How did it appear, why is it so widespread and beloved, that it means how you can call Mary in the bosom of your family.
Maria, Marya, Mary, Mary, Maryana, Mariam, Miriam - all these are different forms of the same female name. Even in Chinese, there is a name 玛丽娅 that is pronounced like Maliya.
At the end of the 19th century in Russia, there were 200 girls per thousand newborns, named Maria. The popularity of the name plummeted after the 1917 revolution. In the middle of the 20th century, it practically disappeared, but now there is a new wave of its popularity.
According to various sources, Mary means "woeful", in Orthodoxy - "mistress".
Name history
In Russia, during the pagan period, names were assigned according to a completely different principle than in the Middle Ages and in modern times. The name could come from external signs, according to the degree of kinship - a harmonious system did not exist. Therefore, it was possible to meet a boy named Wolf, a girl called Nezhdana.
With the advent of Christianity, children began to be named after the Christian saints-great martyrs - the so-called system of hagionyms. The initial list of names offered for criticism did not exceed hundreds - according to the number of canonized Christians, among whom there were several Marias.
The biblical component in compiling a list of Christian names refers to the Old Testament and to the history of ancient Jewish tribes. The names John (the Baptist) and the Virgin Mary belong to the Hebrew language.
In the original sound, the name sounds like Miriam, and was first mentioned in the Book of Exodus. But not quite as a name, but rather as a description of the state of mind of a mother who has lost all her sons. One of the heroines of the Old Testament, Ruth, assigns to herself the characteristic “woeful”, which in Hebrew sounds like “peace” (מירים).
But as a full name, Mary appeared as the name of the mother of Jesus Christ.
In the Russian versions of the Bible, the name is pronounced as Miriam, in the Gospel already as Miriam, Miriam, Mary. The Maria variant appeared when translating books from Hebrew into Greek. As a result of the translation, the accusative case of the name "Mariam" appeared, which from time on began to be perceived as an independent name.
In many languages, several derivatives of the same name have appeared.
The name Maria in the month
The month (saints) mentions about two dozen Mary, Christian martyrs, among them Mary Magdalene, a close friend of Christ. In honor of them, newborn girls are named.
In the name of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, neither in the Orthodox nor in the Catholic Church children are called.
It is noteworthy that in Islam, مريم - Maryam as the mother of the prophet Isa - Jesus, is revered no less than in Christianity.
