Maria
A surname that often began as a given-name-based family name, ultimately tied to the Christian name Mary/Maria.
The #7,395 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 68,610 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Maria is first and foremost the Latin and Romance form of Mary, the biblical mother’s name. As a surname, it most likely arose in some families as a metronymic or as a surname taken from a personal name, especially in countries where Maria was common as a baptismal name. In some cases it may also reflect the broader Christian naming tradition around the Virgin Mary rather than a single occupational or locational source.
History
The surname is most at home in Romance-language regions, where Maria has long been used both as a given name and, less often, as a family name. In English records it can appear simply as a woman’s forename, which makes historical tracing tricky, and some bearers outside Romance areas may have inherited the name through migration or anglicized forms. Because of that overlap, many early records are ambiguous and do not prove a single common origin for all families named Maria.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Maria is so widely used as a given name, it can be hard for genealogists to tell when an old record is naming a woman and when it is recording a true hereditary surname.
From the historical record
“mandy) = the Dead or Stagnant Water [Fr. mortemer—'LsX. mortu-us, dead ; L.Lat. mora, a pool, from the pi. (maria) of Lat. mare, sea : cp. Fr. mare, a pool, pond ; and eau morte, still water] Hugh de Mortuomari. — Hund. Rolls.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)