Marie

Marie is the French form of Mary, and behind it stands the Hebrew name Miriam, carried into French through Latin and centuries of use. The oldest sense of Miriam is debated by scholars. The French inherited a medieval reading of the Latin Maria as "stella maris," the star of the sea, a sailor's fixed point above dark water.

Then a real bearer. Maria Skłodowska, born in Warsaw, became Marie once she settled in Paris, and she signed her science with the French form. A Polish name crossed a border. Marie Curie kept it.

For Polish speakers the name gathered another meaning, "ukochana przez Boga," beloved by God. That sense was attached later, a devotional reading rather than the Hebrew origin. Marie holds both readings, the star above the sea and the one whom God loves.