Maria Valencia

(female) Latin form of Mary. It arose as a back-formation from the early Christian female name Mariam, which was taken as a Latin accusative case. In fact, however, it is an indeclinable Aramaic alternative form of the Hebrew name Miriam. In the English-speaking world Maria is a learned revival dating from the 18th century, pronounced both ‘ma-ree-a’ and, more traditionally, ‘ma-rye-a’. This form of the name is also in common use in most European languages, either as the main local form of the name, as in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Polish, and Czech, or as a learned doublet of a vernacular form. In Spain not only is the name María itself enormously common, but a large number of Marian epithets and words associated with the cult of the Virgin are also used as female given names. Maria is also used as a male name in combinations such as Gianmaria (Italian) and José María (Spanish).

Catalan (València) and Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called València or Valencia, principally the major city in eastern Spain, which was formerly the capital of an independent Moorish kingdom of the same name, until it was reconquered in 1239 by James I, king of the Catalan dynasty, and became part of the Crown of Aragon together with the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Aragon. The city was apparently named from an honorary title derived from Latin valens ‘brave’.