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I love the name Maria. It's so musical ... The Sound of Music ... Westside Story - all of them feature beautiful, youthful, singin' and dancin' Maria's.

Definitely Marie!

Maria

Marie

Maria

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I like Maria better, though I like Marie as well. I agree that I like to see Marie as a first name. I would like to see Marie on others. I would personally use Maria because it suits my heritage. I would use Maria Katherine for a second daughter.

I would be pleased to see either of them as a first name, and I love both of them a lot. I don't think I would think "OMG That's a middle name!" if I saw Marie as a first name, I would think "Oh, lovely!" Same with Maria. Great names. I'd use either, I'd probably take a poll in my family to choose which.

Maria

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Maria is probably overused throughout the world but it still sounds 'fresh' to me somehow (even though I've met many a Maria, lol), and not plain at all. Marie has been so overused as a mn, esp. in the 1970s-90s, that I don't care for it very much and even to the point that it doesn't seem 'right' as a fn (nor as a mn, for that matter).

Both are great...

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But, Maria is not as popular as Marie. Marie though is more popular as a middle name though. It is refreshing to hear it as a first name. Both names are very pretty imo though.

I love them both

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I would have loved to use Maria as a fn, but my husband absolutely cannot stand it so we didn't. I tend to like Marie more as a middle name, even though a lot of people think it is a filler mn. (Well, I say the same about Grace and Nicole.) According to the Social Security Administration's list of popular names from way back, Marie has been very popular as a fn. Wonder why it fell off? Probably about the same time it got popular as a middle name. lol

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Still, I think Marie is due for a revival as a fn. Maria seems to have been popular pretty consistently through the years, and with all ethnic groups too, not just Italians and Hispanics. Mari pretty much fits with any last name as long as they don't rhyme or sound too similar.

Definitely Marie is better, and I would use it.

I like Marie better than Maria. I don't really like Marie as a first name, because it sounds too much like Mary which I don't like. I know someone name Chloe Marie, and I think it sounds beautiful.

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Thanks

I like Maria better as a first name, but Marie is nice too. Personally though, I think they are both overused. Maybe Rosemarie or Mari are better?

As a first name, I definitely prefer Maria. Marie just seems better-suited to be a middle name, in my opinion, though that may be because I'm so used to seeing it in the middle name spot. I think Maria is a lovely, feminine name and is underused. I'm considering it as a middle name to honor my grandmother--Elisabeth Maria is my favorite "Maria" combo at the moment :-)

I think I like Marie slightly more. I love seeing it in the fn spot, because like you said, it's an extremely common mn. There are a lot of older ladies named Maria and Marie around here, but that's not really a problem in my book. I'd probably use Marie over Maria, simply because I like it more, and not to mention if I used Maria my parents would wonder why I used such an Italian name! =P

I love both names, and think they're sorely underused as fns (at least in the US). I would strongly consider using Maria myself. It runs in my family (on my mom's side, EVERY single woman has it as part of her name). I love Marie, but I SO prefer how it's pronounced in French. It's a little droopy in English. On paper, though, it looks wonderful.