|
||||
 [ 2 syll. ma-ra, mar-a ] The girl name Mara is pronounced MAARah KEY. Mara is of Old Greek and Hebrew origin. It is used mainly in English, Hebrew, Italian, Slavic, German, Hungarian, and Czech. Old Greek and Hebrew origin, English, German, Hebrew, and Italian use: Biblical name derived from the word marah with the meaning 'bitter'. In the Bible, Naomi gave herself the name Mara after the deaths of her husband and two sons: 'call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me'. The name has been adopted by English speakers from the 17th century. Variant forms of Mara include Marabel (English) and Marella (Italian and English). In addition, Mara is a variant form of Tamara (English, German, Hungarian, and Russian) in the Czech language. Mara is also a pet form of Damaris (English and German) in the English, Hebrew, Italian, and Slavic languages. Mara is also a variant form of Mary (English) in the English, Hungarian, and Slavic languages. Marah (spelling variant in English and German) and Marra (spelling variant in English) are other forms of the name. Mara is somewhat popular as a baby girl name. The name's popularity grew from the 1940s up to the 1990s; before that, it was of only very modest use. At the peak of its usage in 1997, 0.022% of baby girls were named Mara. It was #568 in rank then. The baby name has experienced a decline in popularity since then. In 2008, it ranked at #812 with a usage of 0.017%, but it was nevertheless the 3rd most popular after Mary (English) and Damaris (English and German), out of all girl names in its family. It was 10 times more commonly used than Mara in 2008. Baby names that sound like Mara include Marra (English), Maira (English, Spanish, and Hawaiian), Mairi (Scottish), Manar (Arabic), Marah (English and German), Maree (English), Marei (German), Marey (English), Mari (English, Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese, Scandinavian, Welsh, Estonian, and Spanish), Marie (English, French, and German), Marja (Finnish and Russian), Marry (English), Maru, Maruja (Spanish), Marwa (Arabic), Mary (English), Marya (English and Russian), Marye (Estonian), Maura (English, Irish, German, Italian, and Spanish), and Maurie (English). KEY: Pronunciation for Mara: M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "read (R.IY.D)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
