Marianna Mayer: Hi. My name is Marianna Mayer. I actually got named after my two grandmothers, one was named Maria an the other was named Anna. I think my parents thought they were not gonna have another child and so they needed to appease both grandmothers and so they put those two names together to give me mine. My last name can be pronounced all different kinds of ways. It's spelled M-A-Y-E-R. It's not like the mayor of a town, not like the mare, the female horse. So it's Marianna Mayer. I'm glad that it is that difficult to spell because I'm always given another chance to get to know people better because they'll always ask me, "How do you spell your first name?", and that always opens up a whole discussion. I hope that helps explain my name.