The vowel "a" in a closed unaccented syllable later became "i", as seen in other names such as "Bil'am" (Balaam) and "Shimshon" (Samson).

The name Mary was early etymologized as containing the Hebrew root mr, meaning "bitter" (cf.

St. Jerome (writing c. 390), following Eusebius of Caesarea, translates the name as "drop of the sea" (stilla maris in Latin), from the Hebrew מר, mar, 'drop' (cf.

[citation needed] In the United States, Mary was consistently the most popular name for girls from 1880 until 1961.

[5] The name Mary remains more popular in the Southern United States than elsewhere in the country.