MARY BOEHM

Originally a Middle English Anglicized form of French Marie, from Latin Maria. This is a New Testament form of Miriam, which St Jerome derives from elements meaning ‘drop of the sea’ (Latin stilla maris, later altered by folk etymology to stella maris ‘star of the sea’). Mary was the name of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, who has been the subject of a cult from earliest times. Consequently, the name was extremely common among early Christians, several saints among them, and by the Middle Ages was well established in every country in Europe at every level of society. It has been in use ever since, its popularity in England having been relatively undisturbed by vagaries of fashion until the 1960s, when it began to decline sharply. In the New Testament, Mary is also the name of several other women: Mary Magdalene (see Madeleine); Mary the sister of Martha, who sat at Jesus's feet while Martha served (Luke 10:38–42; John 11:1–46; 12:1–9) and who came to be taken in Christian tradition as symbolizing the value of a contemplative life; the mother of St Mark (Colossians 4:10); and a Roman matron mentioned by St Paul (Romans 16:6).

German (Böhm), Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): ethnic name for a native or inhabitant of Bohemia (now the western part of the Czech Republic), from Böhmen, German name of Bohemia (Middle High German Böheim, Bēheim). This derives its name from the tribal name Baii + heim ‘homeland’; the Baii were a tribe, probably Celtic, who inhabited the region in the 1st century AD and were gradually displaced by Slavic settlers in the period up to the 5th century. The same tribe also gave their name to Bavaria (see Bayer). Bohemia was an independent Slavic kingdom from the 7th century to 1526, when it fell to the Habsburgs. In 1627 it was formally declared a Habsburg Crown Land, and by the Treaty of Versailles it became a province of the newly formed Czechoslovakia in 1919. This is also found as a Swedish name.