As one who has a Mary/Polly in my own lines, I've always been curious as to the origin. In reading recent posts, I am apparently not the only one. So...I did a little checking... Mary is the English form of the Latin name "Maria", which means "beloved" (most likely owing it's origin and meaning to the Bible). In England, the name "Molly" came to very common usage as a derivation of "Mary" (I would venture a guess that such was due to English/Scot/Irish language patterns and intricacies), and has as its meaning the same "beloved" as Maria/Mary. At some point in time, the M from "Molly" and P from "Polly" became commonly interchangeable. Hence, we have a proggression from Maria to Mary to Molly to Polly. Not very scientific, I know. Just thought I'd throw it out for general consumption and discourse. Brian

Thanks, Brian. I saw that same explanation online when doing my own research......just never had the occasion to meet/know of any "Mary/ Polly personally......several Elizabeth/Polly though including in my own family. My name is supposed to be an alternative for "Mary" (Gaelic) but I've never used the name Mary for myself and never will. My mother named me Maureen because she liked that particular name (her favorite movie star at the time I was born) and quite uncommon when I was growing up.....only 2 Maureens in a school of 600+. Maureen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Shelley" <bshelley@mcgrawschools.org> To: <nywestch@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 11:15 AM Subject: [NYWESTCH] Mary/Polly origins > As one who has a Mary/Polly in my own lines, I've always been curious as > to > the origin. In reading recent posts, I am apparently not the only one. > So...I did a little checking... > > Mary is the English form of the Latin name "Maria", which means "beloved" > (most likely owing it's origin and meaning to the Bible). In England, the > name "Molly" came to very common usage as a derivation of "Mary" (I would > venture a guess that such was due to English/Scot/Irish language patterns > and intricacies), and has as its meaning the same "beloved" as Maria/Mary. > At some point in time, the M from "Molly" and P from "Polly" became > commonly > interchangeable. Hence, we have a proggression from Maria to Mary to > Molly > to Polly. > > Not very scientific, I know. Just thought I'd throw it out for general > consumption and discourse. > > Brian > > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message