My Boston relatives call me MARa so it sounds like the word CAR with an (ah) after it. Sounds very upper class when you say it that way. My New York relatives kind of flatten it and call me Mara as in Sarah. I pronounce it like Sarah, but I respond to both. Unless you’re a friend and you pronounce it the first way, then you’re just pushing my buttons. I like the Celtic interpretation the best “the sea” but sometimes I am bitter & dark etc. Then it fits everyway. So every now and then I’m the “bitter-sea” just like a storm off the Irish coast.