Mary
Meaning and origin
From English Mary as a variant of the traditional Swedish Maria. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1808.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Mary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Mary has been falling over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2016. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | – |
| 1999 | – |
| 2000 | – |
| 2001 | 10 |
| 2002 | – |
| 2003 | – |
| 2004 | 7 |
| 2005 | 12 |
| 2006 | 5 |
| 2007 | 12 |
| 2008 | 9 |
| 2009 | 17 |
| 2010 | 14 |
| 2011 | 12 |
| 2012 | 10 |
| 2013 | 20 |
| 2014 | 23 |
| 2015 | 12 |
| 2016 | 26 |
| 2017 | 19 |
| 2018 | 17 |
| 2019 | 19 |
| 2020 | 16 |
| 2021 | 10 |
| 2022 | 8 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 7,250 |
| 2000 | 7,029 |
| 2001 | 6,809 |
| 2002 | 6,564 |
| 2003 | 6,320 |
| 2004 | 6,117 |
| 2005 | 5,865 |
| 2006 | 5,654 |
| 2007 | 5,432 |
| 2008 | 5,232 |
| 2009 | 5,038 |
| 2010 | 4,832 |
| 2011 | 4,654 |
| 2012 | 4,455 |
| 2013 | 4,310 |
| 2014 | 4,156 |
| 2015 | 3,985 |
| 2016 | 3,845 |
| 2017 | 3,735 |
| 2018 | 3,611 |
| 2019 | 3,514 |
| 2020 | 3,397 |
Mary in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Mary.Hi! My name is Mary.
- Mary har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Mary has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Marys mamma är lärare.Mary's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Marys mamma is Mary's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Mary
How do you pronounce Mary in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Mary from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Mary mean?
From English Mary as a variant of the traditional Swedish Maria. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1808.
How popular is Mary in Sweden?
8 babies were named Mary in 2022. In 2020, 3,397 people in Sweden had Mary as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been falling lately and peaked in 2016 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.