Mia

Additional information: Mia is a feminine name with three different roots – Hebrew, Latin, and Scandinavian. The Hebrew name it descends from is Miriam, a name that means ‘beloved’. As a common diminutive of Maria, Mia can either mean ‘bitterness’ or ‘loved one’, and the name is also associated with the Italian word ‘mia’, meaning ‘mine’. Mia is a diminutive of Amelia and Emily, and can be alternatively spelled as Miah or Maya. Most of Mia’s foreign spellings come from the original root ‘Miriam’, such as the Arabic Maryam, the French Marion, and the Irish Maura. Mia is sometimes misspelled as ‘Mi’ and ‘Miha’. Mia is an English and Scandinavian diminutive of the English Mary and a variant transcription of Michaela.

Despite its historical use as a diminutive for other names, since the sixties the name Mia has become a popular name for girls in its own right. Entering the top thousand names for girls at 568^th in 1964, the name quickly rose in popularity, entered the top ten names for girls in 2009, and was the sixth most popular name in 2014 in the USA. A similar trend occurred in England and Wales, with Mia being the tenth most popular name for girls in 2013.

Famous people with the name Mia include Mia Wasikowska (Australian actress), Mia Tyler (American actress and daughter of Steve Tyler), and M.I.A. (British rapper, born Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam).

The actress Mia Farrow, famous for her role in Rosemary’s Baby, has stated that the director of the film, Roman Polanski, pointed to her pregnancy padding for the role and told her to walk in front of genuine traffic for some scenes in the film, stating that “nobody will hit a pregnant woman”. Polanski had to walk behind her with a camera to get the footage, because no one else would walk into oncoming traffic to film the scenes.