The name Mary (Greek Μαριαμ or Μαρια) appears 54 times in the New Testament, in 49 verses. It was the single most popular female name among Palestinian Jews of the time, borne by about one in four women, and most of the New Testament references to Mary provide only the barest identifying information. Scholars and traditions therefore differ as to how many distinct women these references represent and which of them refer to the same person.