Martha is a feminine given name (Latin from Ancient Greek Μάρθα (Mártha), from Aramaic מרתא (Mārtā) "the mistress" or "the lady", from מרה "mistress", feminine of מרי "master"). Patti, Patsy, and Patty were in use in Colonial America as English rhyming diminutives of the diminutive Mattie.[1] Molly has been used as a diminutive of Martha since the 1700s.[2]

Martha
Martha from the Isabella Breviary, 1497
GenderFemale
Origin
Word/nameGreek & Aramaic
Meaning"mistress"
Other names
Variant form(s)Marfa, Marta, Marthe
Related namesMarwa, Merve, Marva, Märta

Variants in different languages:

  • Maata (Maori)
  • Марфа (Marfa) (Russian and Belarusian), formerly spelled "Марѳа" from the Greek version of the name, that the Russians assimilate in F
  • Márta (Hungarian)
  • Marta, Martha (Indonesian)
  • Marta (Bulgarian[clarification needed], Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Italian, Latvian, Macedonian[clarification needed], Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish)
  • Марта (Marta) (Ukrainian)
  • Marthe (French, German, Dutch)
  • Martta (Finnish)
  • Moireach (Scottish Gaelic)
  • Morta (Lithuanian)
  • Mortho (Marylandian)

People with the name

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Fictional characters

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Notes

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  1. ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 216. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
  2. ^ Evans, Cleveland Kent (24 September 2023). "Cleveland Evans: Molly peaked with millennials". omaha.com. Omaha World Herald. Retrieved 20 January 2024.