Repeating Mary

sanctanomina Including Mary, Naming nitty gritty,

I loved reading all your comments yesterday!! One of the things that rose to the top for me is how many of you know of families, or are such families, who have used Mary or one of its forms for more than one daughter:

  • “The obstetrician that delivered me had a very large, very Catholic family, and had six or seven daughters all named Mary. Of course, they weren’t JUST named Mary, they were Mary X, but one of them was Mary Mary!”
  • “my stepsis’s were named after Mary (THE Mary) whereas I am named after my mother (who was also named after Mary) … My mom (Mary)’s only sister’s name is.. Rosemary”
  • “One of my sets of girl cousins in the same nuclear family all have the middle name Marie”
  • “all of my sisters and I have Marie/Mary in our names”
  • “I have two cousins who are sisters, and one is named Danielle Marie and the other is Rosemarie Elizabeth”
  • Another family with seven daughters that have among them Mary twice and Marie once
  • “a friend explained to me that it’s a tradition in the Philippines to name all of your daughters Mary and have them all go by their middles instead”
  • “each of our sweet baby girls have a “form” of Mary in their name”

Woo! Mother Mary FTW!

It reminded me the family one of you readers introduced me to the other day from the Five Marys Farms in California, which is so named because, yes, Mom and all four daughters are named Mary:

Mary Regan (Mom)
MaryFrances
MaryMarjorie
MaryJane
MaryTeresa

The daughters all go by nicknames, which are adorable!

I know I’ve said it a million times before, but my paternal grandmother and her sister were both Mary ____ and went by their middle names; all six of my dad’s female first cousins on his mom’s side (from two different families) are Mary ____ and go by their middle names; and my three sisters and I all have a Marian name as either our first or middle.

I never tire of hearing about Marian names, or different ways of working Mary into a name, or families with lots of Mary names … I love them all!

20 thoughts on “Repeating Mary”

  2. I went to a small Catholic college. After graduation, four of us girls rented a house together; all except me were named Mary. Our answering machine ran something like this: “Hello, you’ve reached Mary, Mary, Mary and Melina. If you’re calling for one of the Marys, please specify which one.” (Spot the kid whose parents weren’t Catholic…)
    I’m currently expecting my second child, first daughter. We’re planning to name her Mara Lucie – Mara as a form of Mary and according to my husband a “less depressing-sounding” take on Maura, which was my first choice (I like Mara better now too), and Lucie because he likes Lucy but a close friend has a recent Lucy and I have a dear tante Lucie on my mother’s side and it flows better after Mara anyway. Interestingly, I was thinking the other day about the Carrots for Michaelmas blogger whose daughter’s middle name is Stellamaris, and what a pretty name that is. Then it occurred to me that Mara Lucie is a bit like Stellamaris, Mara being close to the Latin mare (sea) and Lucie meaning light, and stars are lights in the sky… A bit of a stretch but it makes me happy.

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    • This is beautiful! Thanks for commenting! One question though — I say Lucy and Lucie the same — do you say Lucie like Lucia? Is that the German pronunciation of Lucie? I like your meaning of Mara Lucie too, makes sense to me! 🙂

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      • No, Lucie is the French form, and it’s pronounced “Loo-SEE”, with the emphasis on the second syllable.
        Also, today’s my due date, and it happens to be the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which is pretty great (plus I just read that the feast was instituted after Jan Sobieski fought back the Muslim armies outside Vienna, which, considering the current state of world affairs, is relevant), so I’d really love to give birth today. Especially as we’re already planning on a Mary-variant name. Come on, baby!

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      • YES! Today’s such a great feast day, one of my very faves! My September column at CatholicMom.com will be posting on Wednesday, and I wrote about King Jan and the relevance of it all to us today!

        Thanks for the pronunciation correction! Loo-SEE is beautiful! Come on baby indeed!!!

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  3. I love the idea of using Mary or a Mary variant for all the girls in one family!! I think it’s a fun connection between sisters as well as them all having a special connection to Mother Mary 🙂 It’s something I’m definitely considering doing in the future.

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  4. Me, too! Nearly of the women in my family have Mary in their names. Those who don’t, have Ann. I worry about the next generation though. My sister married a non-Catholic and has been clear that she won’t continue it. I only have boys so far. I would likely include a Marian name but not necessarily Mary exactly. I used to wish I didn’t have to share my middle name with my mom, my sister, my cousins, etc….

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  7. We squeaked by with our first and so far only daughter with “Anne”… I think we could still pull this tradition off if we had more girls? I love the commented who says they have used titles of Mary… that sounds gorgeous.

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