The name Maria is usually used as a feminine name, but it can sometimes be used for a boy as well. The name has several meanings, but the most common of these are:
- wished for child
- love
- star of the sea
- beloved
The name was the most popular after Christianity, as 'Maria' is the equivalent of 'Mary' in Latin. Mary was the mother of Jesus, and it is for this reason that after the birth of Christ, many people wanted to name their children after his mother.
The origin of the name is not certain, it could have derived from 'mry' which means 'beloved' in Egyptian. Another possible derivation is Latin 'mare' meaning the sea.
As you can see, the name has such a wide range of possible meanings.
Maria is a common name in a lot of countries: England, the US, France, Canada, Iceland, Italy, Norway and Spain to name just a few.
The name became steadily more popular until up to about the 1980s, but then its popularity started to decrease again and is still decreasing... In 2013 there were only 2795 babies named Maria, compared to the 10128 in 1964.
Strangely, in a lot of European countries, the name has the meaning 'bitter', which seems to have derived from the Hebrew verb 'marmar'.