MARY MCDERMOTT

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).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Diarmada ‘son of Diarmaid’, a personal name possibly composed of the separative prefix di- + farmat ‘envy’, hence meaning ‘free from envy’. This name was borne in Celtic legend by the lover of Gráinne, and, in historical times, by Diarmaid Mac Murchadha, the 12th-century king of Leinster whose appeal to the English for support led directly to the Anglo-Norman presence in Ireland. Mac Diarmada was an important name in Connacht.