Mary is the English form of the Hebrew *Miryam* (Miriam) — of uncertain etymology, often glossed as "beloved," "bitter," or "sea of bitterness." **The mother of Jesus of Nazareth — the most venerated female figure in Christianity and a major figure in Islam (as Maryam)**. **For most of recorded English history Mary was the single most common feminine name in the language**, dominating from the medieval period until the 1960s. **Queen Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"), Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Mary Cassatt, Mary Robinson** — the name carries unparalleled weight across history.
Subject of countless theological treatises, biographies, and Western art masterpieces.
Mary reduces to six — the number of mother of Jesus.