Mari (given name)

Mari is a feminine given name in the Breton, Japanese, Armenian, Estonian, Georgian, Hungarian, Finnish, Welsh, Swedish and Norwegian languages. It is also a devotional given name in Tamil. It can be seen as a cognate of Mary in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian or Swedish. In Estonian it was shortened variety of proper names like Marianne; in Estonian it is often perceived as a derivation of "mari" (berry). In the countries of Georgia and Armenia, Mari is a shortened version of the name Mariam. In Armenia, Mari (Մարի) was the 2nd-most-common female given name of 2013.

In Japanese it appears as Mari (まり, マリ), or can be written using different kanji characters so that it means, respectively: The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana.
 * 真理, "truth"
 * 万里, "long distance"
 * 茉莉, "jasmine"
 * 麻里, "hemp, village"
 * 麻莉, "hemp, white jasmine"
 * 愛莉, "love, white jasmine"(This kanji can also be read as Airi.)

People

 * Saint Mari, a 1st-century saint of the Church of the East and several other denominations
 * Mari of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, Patriarch of the Church of the East (987–999)
 * Mari ibn Suleiman (12th century), historian
 * Mari Abel (born 1975), Estonian actress
 * Mari Akasaka (真理, born 1964), Japanese novelist
 * Mari Alkatiri (born 1949), Prime Minister of East Timor from 2002 to 2006
 * Mari Amachi (真理, born 1951), Japanese singer and actress
 * Mari Blanchard (1923–1970), American actress
 * Mari Ellis (1913-2015), Welsh writer and women's rights activist
 * Mari Hamada (麻里, born 1962), Japanese rock singer
 * Mari Hamada (actress) (マリ, born 1968), Japanese singer and actress
 * Mari Hanafusa (まり, born 1974), Japanese actress in Takarazuka Revue
 * Mari Henmi (マリ, born 1950), Japanese singer and actress
 * Mari Horikawa (堀川 真理), Japanese volleyball player
 * Mari Hoshino (真里, born 1981), Japanese actress
 * Mari Hulman George (1934–2018), American auto racing executive
 * Mari Iijima (真理, born 1963), Japanese singer-songwriter
 * Mari Jászai (1850–1926), Hungarian actress
 * Mari Kalkun (born 1986), Estonian singer and musician
 * Mari Kurismaa (born 1956), Estonian artist and architect
 * Mari Kimura (木村 まり, born 1962), Japanese violinist and composer
 * Mari Kinsigo (1946–2014), Estonian chess Woman FIDE Master
 * Mari Kiviniemi (born 1968), Finnish politician and former Prime Minister of Finland
 * Mari Klaup (born 1990), Estonian heptathlete
 * Mari Kodama (麻里, born 1967), Japanese pianist
 * Mari Kotani (真理, born 1958), Japanese science fiction critic
 * Mari Lill (born 1945), Estonian actress
 * Mari Mahr (born 1941) is a Hungarian-British photographer
 * Mari Mashiba (摩利, born 1959), Japanese voice actress
 * Mari Matsuda (born 1956), American lawyer, activist, and law professor
 * Mari Mori (茉莉, 1903–1987), Japanese author, daughter of novelist Mori Ōgai
 * Mari Motohashi (麻里, born 1986), Japanese curler
 * Mari Must (1920–2008), Estonian linguist
 * Mari Natsuki (マリ, born 1952), Japanese singer, dancer, and actress
 * Mari Ness (born c 1971) is an American poet and author
 * Mari Ozaki (まり, born 1975), Japanese long-distance runner
 * Mari Ozawa (真理), Japanese manga artist
 * Mari Possa (born 1980), Salvadoran actress
 * Mari Saat (born 1947), Estonian writer
 * Mari Shimizu (マリ, born 1936), Japanese voice actress
 * Mari Shiraki (白木 万理), Japanese actress
 * Mari Shirato (真理, born 1958), Japanese actress
 * Mari Tarand (1941–2020), Estonian journalist and radio personality
 * Mari Törőcsik (1935–2021), Hungarian stage and film actress
 * Mari Trini (1947–2009), Spanish singer songwriter
 * Mari Jose Urruzola (1940–2006), Spanish educator, feminist, and writer
 * Mari Wilson (born 1954), English pop and jazz singer
 * Mari Yaguchi (真里, born 1983), former member of the Japanese idol group Morning Musume
 * Mari Yonehara (万里, 1950–2006), Japanese translator, essayist, non-fiction writer and novelist

Fictional characters

 * Mari Iyagi, in My Beautiful Girl, Mari
 * Mari Katsuki (勝生 真利), in the anime series Yuri!!! on Ice
 * Mari Kurihara (栗原 万里), in the manga and anime series Prison School
 * Mari Jiwe McCabe, also known as Vixen, a DC Comics character
 * Mari Illustrious Makinami (真希波・マリ・イラストリアス), in the Japanese animated film series Rebuild of Evangelion
 * Mari Ohara (小原 鞠莉), in the anime series Love Live! Sunshine!!
 * Mari Tamaki (玉木 マリ), in the anime series A Place Further than the Universe
 * Mari Tsutui (筒井 まり), in the manga and anime series Rainbow Days
 * Mari Watanabe (渡辺 摩利), in the light novel series The Irregular at Magic High School
 * Mari Sonoda (園田 真理), in the tokusatsu television series Kamen Rider 555
 * Mari Yamamoto (山本 麻里), in the tokusatsu television series Kamen Rider Fourze
 * Mari Yamashita (山下 マリ), in the manga series Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs
 * Maari, in the Tamil action comedy Maari
 * MARI, in the psychological horror RPG Omori
 * Mari, in the side-scrolling MMORPG Grand Chase