Mari is a feminine given name in the Breton, Japanese, Armenian, Estonian, Georgian, Hungarian, Finnish, Welsh, Swedish and Norwegian languages. It is also a devotional given name in Tamil. It can be seen as a cognate of Mary in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian or Swedish. In the countries of Georgia and Armenia, Mari is a shortened version of the name Mariam. In Armenia, Mari (Մարի) was the 2nd-most-common female given name of 2013. In Japanese it appears as , or can be written using different kanji characters so that it means, respectively: 真理, "truth" 万里, "long distance" 茉莉, "jasmine" 麻里, "hemp, village" 麻莉, "hemp, white jasmine" 愛莉, "love, white jasmine"(This kanji can also be read as Airi.) The name can also be written in hiragana or katakana. People Saint Mari, a 1st-century saint of the Church of the East and several other denominations Mari of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, Patriarch of the Church of the East (987–999) Mari ibn Suleiman (12th century), historian Mari Abel (born 1975), Estonian actress Mari Akasaka (真理, born 1964), Japanese novelist Mari Alkatiri (born 1949), Prime Minister of East Timor from 2002 to 2006 Mari Amachi (真理, born 1951), Japanese singer and actress Mari Ellis (1913-2015), Welsh writer and women's rights activist Mari Hamada (麻里, born 1962), Japanese rock singer Mari Hamada (actress) (マリ, born 1968), Japanese singer and actress Mari Hanafusa (まり, born 1974), Japanese actress in Takarazuka Revue Mari Henmi (マリ, born 1950), Japanese singer and actress , Japanese volleyball player Mari Hoshino (真里, born 1981), Japanese actress Mari Hulman George (1934–2018), American auto racing executive Mari Iijima (真理, born 1963), Japanese singer-songwriter Mari Jászai (1850–1926), Hungarian actress Mari Kalkun (born 1986), Estonian singer and musician Mari Kurismaa (born 1956u), Estonian artist and architect Mari Kimura (木村 まり, born 1962), Japanese violinist and composer Mari Kinsigo (1946–2014), Estonian chess Woman FIDE Master Mari Kiviniemi (born 1968), Finnish politician and former Prime Minister of Finland Mari Klaup (born 1990), Estonian heptathlete Mari Kodama (麻里, born 1967), Japanese pianist Mari Kotani (真理, born 1958), Japanese science fiction critic Mari Lill (born 1945), Estonian actress Mari Mahr (born 1941) is a Hungarian-British photographer Mari Mashiba (摩利, born 1959), Japanese voice actress Mari Matsuda (born 1956), American lawyer, activist, and law professor Mari Mori (茉莉, 1903–1987), Japanese author, daughter of novelist Mori Ōgai Mari Motohashi (麻里, born 1986), Japanese curler Mari Must (1920–2008), Estonian linguist Mari Natsuki (マリ, born 1952), Japanese