Comments (Meaning / History Only)

Meaning: Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology and a feminine counterpart to Dievs. Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her assistants, or alternate aspects. She is the personification of nature and all things physical and embodies the divine aspects of birth, life and death. Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul. Moreover, Māra is the patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle) and the patroness of all the economic activities ("God made the table, Māra made the bread") as well as of money and markets. She is also the goddess of land, which is called Māras zeme (Māra's land). Particularly in western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity. The origin and meaning of her name are debated. While earlier studies considered her name an early Latvianization of Mary, modern-day academics point out the similarities of both the name Māra and the characteristics of the goddess to those of goddesses mentioned in Vedic tradition (compare the goddess Mara in Hinduism). Furthermore, opinions are divided over whether Māra is a pre-Christian deity, or originated as a reflection of the Christian Mary created by semi-Christian Livonian peasants. In modern-day Latvia the name is considered and used as a variant of Marija, a Latvian form of Biblical Mara, a short form of Tamāra as well as occasionally used as that of the Latvian goddess.Notes: https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/4776/28936-Pauls_Balodis_2008.pdf --- "kalendārā kopš 1767. G."
https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ra_(latvie%C5%A1u_mitolo%C4%A3ija)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ra
https://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/sakums/statistika/personvardu-datu-baze/?id=137&query=M%C4%81ra(Information from name #250457 originally submitted by user lilolaf).

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