Mary
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Mary of Rome is regarded as an example of the many women who played significant, active roles in the foundation and growth of the early Church
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/mɛɹi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Mary is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country, where it is the most common given name.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 92(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 188
- ECEcuador1 in 16as Maria
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Mary itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- #1 (measured from records)
- 11 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 679 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 92 (inferred from the name graph)
12,284,478 named Maria, 2022
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
11 other spellings are counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Maria in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, EC Ecuador and 1 more and Мария in RU Russia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Mary of Rome is regarded as an example of the many women who played significant, active roles in the foundation and growth of the early Church. Her commendation by Paul for her 'hard work' highlights the value of diligent service and labor for the community, regardless of one's prominence, and serves as a model of faithful dedication.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 29 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Mary counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | #1 | 12,284,478as Maria | 1 in 17 | 12M | Maria | 306 |
| AR Argentina | #1 | ≈2,300,000 est. | ≈1 in 20 | 5.3K | Maria | 253 |
| RU Russia | #19 | ≈2,000,000 est. | ≈1 in 72 | #4 | Мария | 263 |
| US United States | #1 | 1,768,343 | 1 in 188 | 1.8M | Mary | 679 |
| PH Philippines | #1 | ≈1,200,000 est. | ≈1 in 92 | 27K | Mary | 225 |
| EC Ecuador | #1 | 1,042,139as Maria | 1 in 16 | 1M | Maria | 165 |
| CZ Czechia | #22 | 521,052as Marie | 1 in 21 | 521K | Mary | 130 |
| SV El Salvador | #2 | ≈410,000 est. | ≈1 in 16 | 627 | Maria | 110 |
12,284,478 people counted by IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror), 2022. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); Top 500 First Names in the Philippines (PSA FOI response, tracking; INEC — civil registry names; This page discusses the popularity of names in Sonsonate, El Salvador, and Puno, Peru in the 1980s, published by Maybe i; MVČR — living population register 2017. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Mary is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Mary, a classic and enduring name of Hebrew origin, means "wished-for child" or "beloved." It is most famously associated with the mother of Jesus, but also with other significant New Testament women like Mary of Jerusalem, who was a courageous and foundational member of the early Christian church.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Mary is the English form of the Latin Maria, from the Hebrew name מִרְיָם (Miryam). Its exact meaning is uncertain, with scholars proposing several possibilities, including "rebelliousness," "sea of bitterness," "wished-for child," or from an Egyptian root meaning "beloved".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Mary is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam (מִרְיָם). Its etymology is uncertain, with scholars suggesting various meanings, including "wished-for child," "rebellion," "bitterness," or deriving from an Egyptian root 'mr' meaning "beloved."
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Mary is the English form of the Hebrew name 'Miryam'. Its exact etymology is uncertain, with several proposed meanings, including "rebellion," "sea of bitterness," "wished-for child," and from an Egyptian root 'mr' meaning "beloved".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Mary is the Greek form 'Maria' (Μαρία) of the Hebrew name 'Miriam' (מִרְיָם). Its exact etymology is uncertain, with several proposed meanings, including "rebellion," "bitterness," "wished-for child," and "beloved."
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Mary Stuartb. 1542GBQueen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567 (1542–1587)
- Mary II of Englandb. 1662GBQueen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 to 1694 (1662-1694)
- Mary Wollstonecraftb. 1759GBEnglish writer and intellectual (1759–1797)
- Mary Harrisb. 1830USIrish-born American labor and community organizer (1837–1930)
- Mary Cassattb. 1844USAmerican painter and printmaker (1844—1926)
- Mary Pickfordb. 1892CACanadian actress and producer (1892–1979)
- Vivien Leighb. 1913GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress (1913–1967)
- Mary McAleeseb. 1951IE8th President of Ireland
- Kris Jennerb. 1955USnot in their usual nameAmerican media personality, socialite, and businesswoman
- Princess Beatrice of Yorkb. 1988GBnot in their usual nameelder daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 156 sources across 81 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.8M | #7 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 21K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 21K | #1,030 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 17K | #1,550 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — civil registry names | 2024 | 10K | #207 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.8K | #7 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 2.2K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 435 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 109 | #1,030 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 34 | #2,384 |
Reference works 10
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What are other forms of the name Mary?
- In the etymology graph, Maria, Marie and Мария are forms of the same name in other languages; Marilyn, Mae and Marianne are recorded short or pet forms.
- What does the name Mary mean, and where does it come from?
- Mary of Rome is regarded as an example of the many women who played significant, active roles in the foundation and growth of the early Church. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- Is Mary a male or female name?
- Mary is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Mary have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 12 million people named Maria, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Mary?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,768,343 people named Mary in 2020, about 1 in 188 residents.
- How common is Mary compared with other names?
- In Brazil, Mary is the most common given name of 474,894 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Mary?
- A machine transcription gives /mɛɹi/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Mary?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/maryThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Mary” — the most common given name in Brazil. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.