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Woohoo!! Superfast response time (again)! Thank you both!!

Is Maud a variant?

Maud is a variant of Matilda, for all I know. Think of the English Civil War between King Stephen and Empress Maud (which, inter alia, forms the backdrop of the Cadfael novels): in other languages, Maud is known as Matilda (or Matilde) -- and I think even in English, "Empress Maud" and "Empress Matilda" are used interchangeably in her case. (See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_%28... .)

You know, I did think about including the likes of Marian/ Marion, Marilyn etc. here, though, but ultimately decided against it, because these are actually variants of composite names (Mary Anne, Mary Ellen etc.) -- and since there are virtually no limits to the possible combinations of "Mary" with another name (and to composite names formed on that basis), I was just afraid we'd end up having the female equivalent of every Tom, Dick & Harry creeping in ... (MayBella Swan?!) But maybe I'm wrong?

Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park, Marianne in Sense and Sensibility...

Yes, Maria Bertram -- I knew I was bound to have forgotten an Austen character! (Not Marianne, though, as that's actually another composite variant of Mary Anne. I'd prefer to have the name "Mary" actually appear as such ...)

Very interesting topic！　My first name is Mary and growing up I had a complex about it. It seemed in almost every story I read with a character named Mary, you were supposed to hate her. In the Catholic Church there is the Virgin Mary, but besides her all the saints named Mary started out as "evil women." I didn't see any other female saints described this way.

@Themis-Athena

Mary O'Grady by Mary Josephine Lavin. Can't do much better than than, can I? ;-)

I've added both Erich Maria Remarque and Jean-Marie G. Le Clézio but I'm not sure if they count?