Maya

Maya comes into Polish through Latin, and Latin took it from Greek. The Greek word maia meant a nurse or a good mother, and that is the meaning kept beside the name now: dobra matka. The word also named Maia, one of the Pleiades and, in the old stories, the mother of Hermes.

Rome held onto her. The Roman goddess Maia gave her name to the month of May, and she received offerings on its first day. A small word for a nurturing woman ended up printed on a calendar.

In Poland the name keeps close company. On a school register you are far likelier to find Maja, spelled the Polish way, while the older variant Maiia shows up in official records. Three spellings, one root.

The root has not moved far. Behind Maja, Maiia, and Maya sits the Greek maia, good mother, dobra matka.