Marina

Marina is an example of a multi-cultural name used among Italian, Spanish and Portuguese speakers, popular in France, Germany and Scandinavian countries as well as Slavic nations. It’s also an English word for a basin along the coast or on a shore of a body of water; a place where boats dock and/or are moored to buoys (i.e., a “promenade by the sea”). Marina is the feminine form of the Latin Marius which was an Old Roman given name meaning “of the sea” from the Latin “mare”. From a literary perspective Marina is the name of a Shakespeare character from his little-known play “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” (mostly because Shakespeare’s authorship is in dispute; although his probable collaboration is universally accepted by scholars). In the play, Marina is the beautiful daughter of the titular character Pericles and his trophy wife Thaisa. Marina is born on a ship during stormy seas and as the play states: “My gentle babe Marina - whom, / for she was born at sea, I have nam'd so –“ (Act III, sc. III). From a religious perspective, Saint Margaret of Antioch (the early 4th century famous virgin martyr) is known as Saint Marina in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Today the name Marina is most popular in Spain, Catalonia, Brazil, Croatia and Georgia (all places where water plays a central role in the nation’s livelihood). To a lesser extent, Marina is also used in Slovenia, Serbia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Australia, Canada and the United States. Obviously this name has Cosmopolitan Cool Cachet.