# Mari (given name)

Mari is a feminine given name in the Breton, Japanese, Syriac-Aramaic language, 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 Syriac-Aramaic this is the name of a male saint.
In Japanese it appears as Mari (まり, マリ), or can be written using different kanji characters so that it means, respectively:
* 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.)
The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana.

## 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 Ruef Hofer (1858/59-1929), American composer, lecturer, teacher, writer
* Mari Horikawa (堀川 真理, born 1992), 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 J. Patterson (born 1980), American Filmmaker
* 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, born 1937), 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
* Iochi Mari (伊落マリー), in the mobile gacha game Blue Archive