Martha

Martha comes from the Aramaic name meaning lady or mistress, derived from the root mar, meaning lord or master, with the feminine suffix. The name appears in the New Testament as the sister of Lazarus and Mary, a figure praised for her hospitality and industriousness, which helped establish it as a common name throughout the Christian world. It spread widely through Europe via Biblical Latin and Greek and remains in use across many languages and cultures. Variant forms include Märtha in Swedish and the related masculine root mar underlies cognates such as Marta, the prevailing form in Spanish, Italian, and several Slavic traditions.