I saw a comment on social media recently by someone named Mary, who said her mom was also named Mary, as was her grandmother, etc., but none of the them went by Mary (she didn’t share what they actually went by). I may have asked this before, but if so, it’s been a while, so I’d love to hear again and from new readers too: Tell me your Mary name stories! Does your family have a tradition of all the girls having a Marian name? Do you know of sisters all with Mary as their first name, and if so, what do they all go by? Do you know of boys/men with a variant of Mary in their names?
These can be recent stories about you or your kid, or older stories about previous generations in your family tree or others that you know of — I’d love to hear them all!
Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation from either Theresa or myself here.
For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!
Sancta Nomina 
My mother is a Mary, I’m a Molly. And if we ever have a little girl her name will be Maria or Magdalena. All of my mother’s sisters and many of my female cousins have Marie as a middle name.
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I had a friend who was one of 6 kids, mostly girls. The oldest sister was named Mary, the others had Mary as their middle name.
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We go back at least 7 generations. Our tradition is Mary for the first daughter and Anne for the second daughter. It’s either first or middle name. I don’t have a daughter yet but I’ll use a Marian name if I do.
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All of my husband and I’s grandmothers have marian names: Marie, Virginia (Ginny) , Delores Marie (Dee), Mary-Ellen (Ellie). My name is Mary. And my daughter is Lucy Marie. Lots of Mary! 🙂
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All of my husband and I’s grandmothers have Marian names: Marie, Virginia Marie (Ginny), Delores Marie (Dee), Mary-Ellen (Ellie). My name full name is Mary Elizabeth and my daughter is Lucy Marie! Lots of Mary 🙂
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All of my sisters -6 of us- have Mary or Marie as first or middle name. (Twins Mary A and Mary B). One niece has it as middle name, my daughter has Maria. It goes with everything!
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One of my maternal great-great-grandmothers was Mary Ellen. My maternal great-grandmothers were Mary Elizabeth and Mary Josephine, and a maternal great-aunt was Mary Ruth.
My mom’s name is Mary Ann.
My legal first name is Mary, but since birth I’ve gone by my middle name, a French version of Ann (think of a famous Mouseketeer from the ’50s).
One of my daughters has Marie as a middle name and I almost named another daughter Mary Elizabeth.
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My mother is a Mary and her sister a Rosemary! There were many Marys in her large extended Catholic family. Many simply went by Mary Lastname. My middle name is Marie as a tie-in to their names. I tried to give a Marian name to all 3 of my girls. My first daughter has “Anne” in her first name as a tribute to Mary’s mother, my second daughter has “Marie-Therese” as a middle name (really wanted the Marie there), and my third daughter’s middle name is Grace, after Our Lady of Grace.
Our only son has two apostle’s names, and I feel like the apostles were extra close to Mary? Is that too much of a stretch? Haha!
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Not too much of a stretch! I love that way of thinking!
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My middle name is Marie. All my girls have a Marian name. Five have Marian middle names: Rose, Maria, Mary, Faith (with Jesus), and Maureen. We also have a first name Molly. We have a child created perfectly with Down Syndrome, so we gave her two Marian names. She is Grace Maureen. If we have another girl, her middle name will be Joy for Cause of our Joy.
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“created perfectly with Down Syndrome” — beautiful!
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My father’s mother was MaryAnn and my mother’s mother was MaryElizabeth. I was named Mary Elizabeth Ann. In the family photo album, my picture says “Marybeth’s 1st birthday”. My 2md bday, the picture says “Betsy’s 2nd birthday”. My mom said that there were too many Mary’s and she was trying to find a name that fit. On my 3rd birthday, it says “Mea”(my initials). It has stuck for 44 years. Everyone spells it Mia and I joke that I am the Irish Mia, spelt Mea. 🙂
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This is fun! When we had our first girl (after 3 boys) we were going to name her Margaret Rose. When she was born I panicked and thought “what if we never have another girl? we need to put Mary in her name!” so she became Margaret Rosemary. And we had 3 more boys after her, so I’m glad we squeezed Mary in there 🙂
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My maternal grandmother was the youngest of 8 girls all called Marie Therese and went by their 3rd name. It was common in French Canadian families for multiple sisters to have Marie as their first name. I believe my great-grandparents had a special devotion to the Little Flower.
My own 4 daughters have Marie as their middle name. In honour of Our Lady, a nod to my heritage and as a way to connect them to each other for life.
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I am the 2nd of 5 daughters . Our 2nd names are Anne, Mary, Maria, Anne and Maree.
My 6 SIL have Anne, Mary, Rosemary, Mary, Anne and Mary as 2nd names with very of their birth era first names, think..Susan, Jennifer etc (not very creative naming lol)
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Not a naming story, but I just saw Marlene listed as the “name of the day” on behindthename. I didn’t know it was a blend of Mary Magdalene!
https://www.behindthename.com/name/marlene
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Yes! I loved discovering that too! I wrote about other unexpected places where Magdalene pops up here: https://www.catholicmom.com/articles/2016/07/20/honor-new-feast-day-name-magdalene
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For our children we decided every boy will have the second middle name Joseph and every girl will have the second middle name Maria.
My current babes are
1. Clement Dominic Joseph (we name him after the Hail Holy Queen Prayer)
2. Robert Dennis Joseph (he goes by his nickname Rudy- he is named for my and my husband’s grandfathers)
I’m Pregnant with #3. Our girl name is
Philomena Therese Maria
And our boy name is
Karl Gabriel Joseph
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I love Rudy for Robert Dennis Joseph!
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I went to college with someone named Mary Catherine but mostly called Cat. Later, I met her sister, also named Mary Catherine, but called Macy. Mary Catherine is a gorgeous name but I always thought two sisters with the exact same name was odd!
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That is hilarious and amazing! Great story, thank you for sharing!
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The Belgian king’s sister, princess Astrid has five children, three daughters called Maria Laura, Luisa Maria and Laetitia Maria. They have much longer names, but all use the above two. I think all the Belgian royals have Maria as part of their names (or Marie in the French versions of their names), including the men.
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There’s the Five Marys farm! Mom and 4 daughters all named Mary Something.
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Yes! I love that! I included all their names and a link to their nicknames here: https://sanctanomina.net/2015/08/27/repeating-mary/
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We have what began as an unintentional Mary and Ann theme in our family, but one that I hope my girls will carry on!
My grandmothers are Mary and a French Mary name (ie, John Wayne’s real name), my sister also shares that variant, and my daughter is Mariel. I have aunts and nieces with Mary in their names as well.
Then my mother has Ann as a middle, I have Ann as part of my first name, and my second daughter has Annelie as her middle.
If we’d had a third daughter, I really would have considered Annemarie or Annamaria as a middle name!
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[…] thanks to you all for sharing your Mary name stories! Please keep them […]
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My oldest is Maria. Our other three have Marian middle names- Rose, Carmela, and Pia (for Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Mt Carmel, and Our Lady of Sorrows).
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Almost all my sisters and I (9 of us) are middle named Marie, with the exception of one sister who has first name Mary. Two sisters have plus names: Anne Marie and Rose Marie.
All my brothers (6 :)) are middle named Joseph, with the exception of the two first-name-J brothers who have middle names of Paul and Patrick.
We have 4 girls and are Marian-middle-named: Immaculata, Rose (OL of Rosary), Mercy (OL of Divine Mercy), and Marri which I believe is Celtic(? Can’t remember origin!) for Mary/Marie. Our 4 sons were middle named after my dad, husband’s dad, St Joseph, and our youngest is middle named after my husband in a round about way. He didn’t want his name, in any which way, shape, or form, for our boys, so I went the round about journey of finding a name that had the same meaning as his! So our youngest son is middle named a name that means Little Wolf, in honor of my husband whose name also means “Little Wolf”
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Hi Joanna! ❤ Your families (both your family of origin and your family with hubby) have always been a naming inspiration to me! Thanks for writing this all out!
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