Mara - Meaning of Mara

What does Mara mean?

Pronounce
Mara

[ 2 syll. ma-ra, mar-a ] The baby girl name Mara is pronounced MAARAH †. Mara is of Old Greek and Hebrew origin. It is used mainly in English, Hebrew, Italian, Slavic, German, Hungarian, and Czech. Hebrew origin, English, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Italian use: It is a 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 since the 17th century.

In addition, Mara is a shortening of Amara (English).

Mara is also a familiar form of Damaris (English and German) in the English, Hebrew, Italian, and Slavic languages.

Mara is also a variant of Mary (English) in the English, Hungarian, and Slavic languages.

Mara is also a variant of Tamar (Armenian, English, Hebrew, and Turkish) in the Czech language.

Variants of Mara include Mahra, Marabel (English), Marae, Maralina, Maralinda, Maraline, Marella (Italian), and Marrah.

Marah (spelling variant in English and German) and Marra (spelling variant in English) are other forms of the name.

See also the related categories, english, hebrew, greek, slavic, biblical, bitter, italian, czech, german, and hungarian.

Mara is rather popular as a baby girl name. The name's popularity has been rising since the 1940s; before that, it was of only very modest use. At the recent peak of its usage in 2017, 0.023% of baby girls were named Mara. It was #670 in rank then. In 2018, it ranked at #681 with a usage of 0.023%. Out of the family of girl names directly related to Mara, Mary was the most regularly used. It was 5 times more commonly used than Mara in 2018.

Baby names that sound like Mara include Mahra, Marra, Marrah, Maartje, Maera, Maerah, Maheara, Maheira, Mahwash, Mairah, Mamre, Marca, Marcee, Marcey, Marci, Marcie, Marcsa, Marcy, Marek, and Marga.

† Pronunciation for Mara: M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; R as in "race (R.EY.S)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)"