Is Maria in the Bible? Yes, It Is the Greek and Latin Form of Mary

Yes. Maria is one of the two spellings the Greek New Testament uses for Mary, the other being Mariam, and the Latin Bible uses Maria throughout. Several women in the New Testament bear the name, above all Mary the mother of Jesus. It comes from the Hebrew Miryam, the name of Moses’ sister Miriam.

Are Maria and Mary the same name?

Yes. English Bibles call all of these women Mary, but the Greek has two spellings, Mariam and Maria, and uses both for the same women. Luke 1:27 says “the virgin’s name was Mary,” and the Greek there is Mariam; Matthew 1:16, which calls Joseph “the husband of Mary,” uses Maria. Mary Magdalene is Maria when she comes to the tomb in John 20:1, and Mariam when the risen Jesus says her name in John 20:16. Mariam is the form closer to the Hebrew Miryam. The Vulgate, the Latin Bible of the Western Church, uses Maria in both Testaments, so in Latin Moses’ sister is Maria too.

Maria is the form used in Italian, Portuguese, German, Greek, Polish, Romanian and Russian, among many other languages. Spanish writes María, French has Marie, and English uses both Mary and Maria. Mariah is an English variant. In Germany, Poland and Italy, Maria is occasionally given to boys as a middle name.

Women named Mary in the New Testament

• Mary the mother of Jesus, betrothed to Joseph (Luke 1:27), who was with the apostles in prayer after the ascension (Acts 1:14).
• Mary Magdalene, “from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:2), who stood by the cross and, in John’s Gospel, was the first to see Jesus risen (John 19:25; 20:11–18).
• Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching” (Luke 10:39) and anointed his feet (John 11:2; 12:3).
• Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses, who watched the crucifixion and came to the tomb (Mark 15:40; 16:1). Matthew calls her “the other Mary” (Matthew 27:61; 28:1).
• Mary the wife of Clopas, who stood by the cross (John 19:25). Scholars disagree about whether she is the same woman as the mother of James and Joses.
• Mary the mother of John Mark, whose house in Jerusalem was a place where the church gathered to pray (Acts 12:12).
• Mary in Rome, “who has worked hard for you,” greeted at the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 16:6).

So many Marys appear because Mary was the most common name for Jewish women in Judaea in the time of Jesus. In Tal Ilan’s collection of the names recorded for Jewish women in the land of Israel from 330 BC to AD 200, 80 of 317 women, about one in four, are called Mary in one of its forms.

In the Old Testament the name belongs to Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses (Numbers 26:59). After the crossing of the Red Sea, “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing” (Exodus 15:20).

What does Maria mean in Hebrew?

No one knows for certain. Behind the Name lists the theories “sea of bitterness,” “rebelliousness” and “wished-for child,” and judges it most likely Egyptian in origin, perhaps from mry, “beloved,” or mr, “love.” The names of Miriam’s brothers, Moses and Aaron, are also most likely Egyptian. A German study of 1895 by Otto Bardenhewer discussed about seventy proposed meanings.

The best-known explanation, “star of the sea” (stella maris), is traced to Saint Jerome’s book on the meanings of Hebrew names. The Catholic Encyclopedia argues that Jerome, who knew Hebrew well, probably wrote stilla maris, “a drop of the sea,” and that a copyist changed one letter; a manuscript from the end of the ninth century still reads stilla. The explanation spread all the same, and Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) became a title of the Virgin Mary.

How do churches differ about the Virgin Mary?

Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches all teach that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as the ancient creeds say. The Council of Ephesus in 431 called her Theotokos, “God-bearer” or Mother of God, a title the Catholic and Orthodox churches use and many Protestant churches, among them the Lutheran churches, accept. They differ on what else they teach about her.

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary remained a virgin all her life, that she was preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception (the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854), and that at the end of her life she was taken up body and soul into heaven (the Assumption, defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950). Catholics honor her with a special devotion and ask for her prayers, and the Catechism says this devotion “differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word.”

The Orthodox Church also calls her ever-virgin and asks her prayers. On the feast of the Dormition, 15 August, it celebrates her death, her raising by her Son and her glorification. It teaches that she committed no personal sins, but it “does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin” at her conception, which is the Immaculate Conception as Catholics define it.

Protestant churches honor Mary as the mother of Jesus. Most do not hold the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption as doctrines of the faith, and they do not pray to her. Martin Luther believed she remained a virgin, but most Protestants today read the “brothers” of Jesus named in Mark 6:3 as her later children. Catholic teaching regards them as other relatives, and Orthodox tradition as sons of Joseph from an earlier marriage.

How common is the name Maria?

Because of the Virgin Mary the name has been one of the most used in the Christian world, although Behind the Name notes that at some times and places it was thought too holy for everyday use. Maria was the most popular girls’ name in Portugal in 2018 and in Uruguay in 2022, and it ranked fourth in Spain in 2024. In the United States it reached its highest rank, 30th, in 1975, and it ranked 87th in 2025.

Related reading

• Is Marie a Biblical Name? Yes, in the Way That Mary Is
• Is Mariah in the Bible? No, It Is an English Form of Maria
• Bible Study: Who Was Mary Magdalene?
• Why Do Catholics “Pray” to Mary?

Related reading

• Is Your Name in the Bible? A Directory of 231 Names