A few days ago I was headed out for our \u201cwinter golf\u201d meeting at a friend\u2019s house. Since we had just gotten a foot or so of snow, I called another friend and told him I\u2019d pick him up since there was no sense in making a mess of both our cars. I told Claire that I was going to pick up Bill on the way to golf and she said, \u201coh good, give these to Mary\u201d and handed me a bag. Well, here\u2019s the problem \u2014 both the guy I was picking up and the guy whose house we were going to, both have wives named Mary. And of course I gave the bag to the wrong Mary.<\/p>\n
Well, that got me to thinking about Mary. I know a lot of people named Mary, but I can\u2019t think of any young<\/em> people I know named Mary. Naturally my extensive research mode kicked in and I discovered that if you check the most popular names for girls in the years 1914 to 2013, Mary is number one in 42 of those years. But \u2014 here\u2019s the interesting part \u2014 since 1961 Mary has never been in the top ten and has been falling in popularity consistently. In 2011, Mary had fallen to 112th place in popular names for girls. If you like statistics, the number of girls named Mary at birth has fallen 94 percent since 1961.<\/p>\n If you look up \u201cMary,\u201d the definition is usually just a feminine name or a reference to the Virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene, or some other Mary of note. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Mary is: wished-for child; rebellion; bitter. The name Mary has always been a popular name for girls and when you hear it, besides being a nice name, a lot of people associate it with religion. The name Mary appears 61 time in the New Testament in 53 different verses.<\/p>\n I can think of quite a few Marys off the top of my head \u2014 not counting the obvious Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Mary Queen of Scotts, there\u2019s Mary Tyler Moore and Mary Poppins. Merrill Streep has a daughter named Mary Willa and I\u2019ve read books by Mary Higgins Clark and books about Mary \u2014 Mary, Mary Quite Contrary and Mary that had a little lamb. Mary Katherine Gallagher was the name of a character on Saturday Night Live and I remember a movie, There\u2019s Something About Mary. Mary Todd Lincoln was Abe\u2019s wife and a famous silent movie stare was named Mary Pickford. I used to like Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary and I still like Bloody Marys and who could forget Typhoid Mary and Mary Anne from Gilligan\u2019s Island, the song Proud Mary and the RMS Queen Mary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few days ago I was headed out for our \u201cwinter golf\u201d meeting at a friend\u2019s house. Since we had just gotten a foot or so of snow, I called another friend and told him I\u2019d pick him up since … Continue reading
\nWith all those Marys rattling around in my head, no wonder I gave the bag to the wrong Mary.
\nMaybe there really is something about Mary\u2026.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n