Over 2,600,000 Romanians have the Mother of God as their spiritual protectortranslated

The Mother of God is the spiritual protector of 2,638,785 Romanians, according to data provided by the General Directorate for Personal Records.

Of their total, which bear the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 644,063 are men and 1,994,722 are women.

The largest category is represented by women named Maria, with 1,491,115 people registered in the official records. Other female first names derived from or associated with the name of the Mother of God are Mariana - 261,828, Marinela - 50,516, Mărioara - 49,636, Marina - 29,738, Mioara - 29,102, Marilena - 24,200, Maricica - 21,263 and Mara - 19,641.

The list is completed by surnames such as Marița, Măriuța, Mia, Măriuca, Marusia, Mari, Mary and Marinica, which add up to several thousand people.

Among men, the most frequent are Marian - 314,773 and Marius - 258,168, followed by Marin - 68,128 and Marinică - 2,994.

In the Orthodox Church, the Mother of God is honored with 9 commemoration days, 6 of which are marked in the calendar with a red cross and 4 with a black one.

Photo credit: BASILICA / Mircea Florescu