Maria

Pronunciation

• (usually) IPA^(key): /məˈɹiːə/
• (also especially the variant "Mariah") IPA^(key): /məˈɹaɪə/
• Rhymes: -iːə, -aɪə

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Proper noun

Maria

1. A female given name from Hebrew.
   • 1629, Thomas Adams, Meditations upon Creed, The Works of Thomas Adams, James Nichol (1862), volume 3, page 211:

     Yet herein they come short of the monks and friars in their conceits of the word Maria; they have so tossed it and turned it, so anagrammatized and transposed it, that never were five poor letters so worried since time did put them into the alphabet.

   • 1776, Adam Fitz-Adam: The World of Adam Fitz-Adam. Edinburgh, Apollo Press 1776: Numb. 187. Thursday, July 29, 1756:

     By their dresses, their names, and the airs of quality they give themselves, I am rendered ridiculous among all my acquaintance. My wife, who is a very plain good woman, and whose name is Amey, has been new-christened, and is called Amelia; and my little daughter, a child of a year old, is no longer Polly, but Maria.

   • 1957, “Maria”, in Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), Leonard Bernstein (music), West Side Story:

     I've just kissed a girl named Maria / And suddenly I found how wonderful a sound can be! / Maria! Say it loud and there's music playing / Say it soft and it's almost like praying

2. Synonym of Mary, mother of Jesus, in Latin, Spanish, etc. contexts.
3. A surname originating as a matronymic.

Proper noun

Maria

1. A Dravidian language spoken in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh provinces in India.

Further reading

• ISO 639-3 code mrr (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Maria (India), mrr ⁠

Proper noun

Maria

1. A Papuan language spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Further reading

• ISO 639-3 code mds (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Maria (New Guinea), mds ⁠