The Great and Powerful Mary

Happy Thursday Everyone! I’m so sorry that I missed two Thursdays ago. Life got in the way, and I completely forgot and I feel awful about it. This week I’m going to talk about variations on the ultimate super name: Mary.

I’ll start off with two of the most obvious variations. Marie and Molly. Marie is the lovely French version of Mary that is starting to fall from favor as a first name. Marie is a super name in her own right, but instead of as a first name, as a middle. I personally love Marie, I think it’s beautiful, and love how unexpected it is as a first name because of how often it’s been used a middle (though I love it for a middle too). Molly is an off shoot of Mary. Molly started off as a nickname for Mary but can now stand alone. I really like Molly, but as it’s my sister’s name, I cannot ever use it.

Two other diminutives are Mara and Miriam. I think these two are a little less obvious than Marie and Molly, but they still have a connection. Mara is a beautiful name that has never been very common in the United States. I only know one, and she’s a lovely person, so that association makes me like this name a lot. Miriam is a name that I find absolutely adorable. I love the nicknames Mimi and Miri J. Miriam as never been very popular here, but I still think it sounds so classic and lovely.

The last two names that I’m going to talk about I think are the least obvious variants; Moira and Malia. Moira isn’t exactly my style, but I think it’s an awesome way to maybe honour a Mary in an unconventional way. Just like Mara and Miriam, this name has never been common in the US, although unlike the other two, it’s more unheard of as well. Moira also reminds me of Peter Pan as it’s one of Wendy’s middle names. Malia then has been thrust into the lime light because of President Obama’s daughter. There are many spelling variations of Malia but I think this most simple one is the best.

So what are your favorite variations of Mary? Or do you like just Mary best?