Is Molly close enough to Maria?

[LinusVanPelt]

Hello -

My MIL is named Maria, and DH and I like the idea of naming our DD in her honour, but the name doesn't really do much for me. I know it's a really lovely, classic name, but I'm just not feeling it.

I do like Mary, and I really love Molly as a nickname for Mary.

If we decide to name DD Mary, but we end up calling her Molly, do you think that the link to 'Maria' is too removed to be meaningful?

I know we can call her what we like but I'm just curious to know whether people would follow the logic of "she's Mary after her Nana, Maria. We call her Molly." We do want MIL to feel that she was named for her, but I'm not sure that our intentions will be apparent we go with the variant I like best.

Thanks :)

if we go with the variant I like best...

Well molly is a varient of Mary and Maria is a variant of Mary.... They all have the same meaning.

I think it is a bit of a stretch other than that though. I like Maria on its own! It's not as popular as Molly and its my middle name lol

Molly is also a dimutive of Margaret (as in Milly Molly Mandy's proper name was Millicent Margaret Amanda) so perhaps Margaret is an option?