Mariam = "star of the sea" or "bitter sea"

[Geremia]

My friend, who studied Hebrew and Greek in the Holy Land, wrote:

Our Lady's parents were undoubtedly inspired and chose her first name accordingly. "Bitter Sea" [יָם + מַר] is the exact literal meaning of Mariam (MaR-YaM/מַרְיָם). It seems and really is deeply appropriate, so I would argue, in the light of the Mystery of the scope (like that of a sea) of Our Lady's bitterness (her hidden co-redemptive sufferings extending throughout her whole earthly life and most profoundly during the bitter Passion of Our Blessed Lord, her own Passion).

Happy Feast of the 7 Sorrows of Our B.V.M.

[Geremia]

St. Jerome writes in Liber de Nominibus Hebraicis col. 886:

Mariam plerique aestimant interpretari, illuminant me isti, vel illuminatrix, vel Smyrna maris, sed mihi nequaquam videtur. Melius autem est, ut dicamus sonare eam stellam maris, sive amarum mare: sciendumque quod Maria, sermone Syro domina nuncupetur.

[Many, they tell me, think Maria means either illuminator or the Smyrna sea, but it does not at all seem so to me. For it is better that we say it signifies the star of the sea or bitter sea: and understanding that Maria in Syrian means lady.]

The OED for "Mary" says:

The Hebrew name may be < Amorite, with the meaning 'gift (of God)'; compare the Akkadian root rym 'to give as a gift'. [...] one element of the name has often been interpreted as 'sea', e.g. in pseudo-Epiphanius' explanation σμύρνα θαλάσσης 'myrrh of the sea' [...] and St Jerome's stella maris

[Geremia]

St. Bernard, in his Second Homily on Luke i. 26 in today's matins, says:

It is said: And the virgin's name was Mary. Let us speak a few words upon this name, which signifieth, being interpreted, Star of the Sea, and suiteth very well the Maiden Mother, who may very meetly be likened unto a star. A star giveth forth her rays without any harm to herself, and the Virgin brought forth her Son without any hurt to her virginity. The light of a star taketh nothing away from the star itself, and the birth of her offspring took nothing away from the Virginity of Mary. She is that noble star which was to come out of Jacob, Num. xxiv. 17, whose brightness still sheddeth lustre upon all the earth, whose rays are most brilliant in heaven, and shine even unto hell, lighting up earth midway, and warming souls rather than bodies, fostering good and scaring away evil. She, I say, is a clear and shining star, twinkling with excellencies, and resplendent with example, needfully set to look down upon the surface of this great and wide sea.