I was in the same boat as you. I hated
Mary. It was boring, but now it's really charming to me.
I've been liking compound names lately that feature
Mary not as a silent first name, but as a part of one whole. Mary-Cecile, Mary-Rosalie, etc. A step up from dated Mary-Ann, Mary-Sue, Mary-Lou, etc.
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman