Marko

Marko is the Slavic cognate of Mark, the English form of Marcus, a Roman given name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war. Mars is a name of uncertain etymology. It’s been linked to Latin mas meaning “man, male” of unknown origin though perhaps derived from a PIE root word meaning young man. However, it’s possible that Mars may be related to an older source, perhaps adopted from the Etruscan god Maris (the god of agriculture and fertility); this might be possible since Mars was also associated with agriculture and fertility.

Mars could also be a contracted form of an older name, Mavors, a cognate of Oscan Mamers. Etruscan seems to be a pre-Indo-European language of which very little is known about; the Etruscan civilization was conquered and than assimilated by the Ancient Romans, and the Etruscan language eventually died out with very little of it left behind. The origin of both names is unknown, but Mavors could possibly be related to Latin mah or margh (to cut) and vor (to turn) essentially meaning “turner of the battle”.

Mars could also be derived from the same PIE root as Sanskrit marici “ray of light”, ultimately derived from PIE *mer- meaning “to die; to disappear”. It could also be associated with Latin marceo meaning “to (cause to) wither” and “to (make) shrivel” and Latin marcus meaning “hammer”, but these links are tenuous at best.

Origin: unknown, possibly Etruscan

Meaning: from Ancient Roman Martinus “belonging to Mars”, a name of uncertain origin and meaning though various possible meanings attributed to it are “man, male”, “turner of the battle”, perhaps from PIE root word *mer- (to die), or related to Latin marceo “to (cause to) wither” or “to (make) shrivel”, or Latin marcus “hammer”- though all of them are tenuous

Usage: Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Finnish, Estonian, Basque, Serbian, Slovene, Ukrainian

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Variants:

• Markos (Ancient Greek, Greek)
• Marcus (Ancient Roman, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish)
• Markus (German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish)
• Mark (English, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish)
• Marc (French, Catalan, Welsh)
• Markku (Finnish)
• Margh (Cornish)
• Marek (Czech, Polish, Slovak)
• Marco (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch)
• Maleko (Hawaiian)
• Márk (Hungarian)
• Marcas (Irish, Scottish)
• Markuss (Latvian)
• Mars (Roman mythology)