Portuguese Name - The Name 'Maria'

The Name 'Maria'

The given name Maria (like English Mary, from Hebrew Miryam, via Latin Maria) is extremely common as a feminine given name and even combined with masculine names. In Portugal it has always been common and in recent years, with a new wave of traditional given names, it has had an increase in popularity.

Traditionally Maria is more common as the first part of a double first name combination; these may be formed by several different elements.

Religious predicates (often honouring one of the Virgin Mary's denominations):

• Catholic devotion festivities: Maria da Conceição (referring to Our Lady of Conception), Maria das Dores (Our Lady of Sorrows), Maria da Assunção (Assumption), Maria da Natividade (Nativity of Mary).
• A Place of a Marian apparition: Maria de Fátima (Fátima), Maria de Lurdes (Lurdes / Lourdes), Maria de la Salete (Salete / Salette), Maria Aparecida (common in Brazil, after Our Lady Aparecida), Maria Nazaré (Nazareth).

• A virtue or a nature element (many of which have lost religious associations nowadays): Maria do Céu (Heaven or Sky), Maria da Luz (Light), Maria do Mar (Sea), Maria da Graça (Grace).
• The name of a Saint: Maria de São José (after Saint Joseph).

Other types of combinations:

• Maria paired with a different feminine given name: Maria Madalena, Maria Teresa, Maria Antónia, Maria Carolina.
• Maria paired masculine given name: Maria João, Maria José, Maria Manuel, Maria Luís.

Many names that are etymologically related to Maria are also used. The most common one is name Mariana, a contraction of Maria and Ana (introduced in Portugal by Spanish-born Queen Mariana Vitória de Bourbon and often used in the Portuguese Royal Family). Other international aglutinations of Maria combinations have been introduced in more recent times. These include Marisa (from Spanish María Isabel), Marlene (from German Maria Magdalene), Marília and Míriam (from Hebrew).

As Maria is so widely used, women are most likely to be addressed by just the second element of their name: Conceição (Conception), Dores (Sorrows), Céu (sky/heaven), Luz (light), Lurdes (Lourdes), Fátima, Salete, Aparecida (appeared one), Madalena, Antónia, Teresa, Glória (glory), Prazeres (pleasures) etc. A woman named Maria de Jesus would be called "Jesus", even though the second name is masculine.

A similar thing happens with the name Ana (English Anne or Hannah), also very common in double-name combinations such as Ana Paula and Ana Carolina, especially in the younger generations.

A similar procedure occurs with masculine names, but using a reverse order. It is not unusual to find masculine names like João Maria, José Maria, Manuel Maria, Luís Maria etc. In this case, Maria would always be the second given name, in honour of Virgin Mary, and the first name would be a masculine name. This custom is fashionable among the Portuguese and Brazilian nobility and the upper classes, but is considered tacky in Brazil society.