Most Desirable Above All Things: Onomastic Play on Mary and Mormon in the Book of Mormon

The names Mary and Mormon most plausibly derive from the Egyptian word mr(i), love, desire, [or] wish. Mary denotes beloved [i.e., of deity] and is thus conceptually connected with divine love, while Mormon evidently denotes desire/love is enduring. The text of the Book of Mormon manifests authorial awareness of the meanings of both names, playing on them in multiple instances. Upon seeing Mary (the mother of God, 1 Nephi 11:18, critical text) bearing the infant Messiah in her arms in vision, Nephi, who already knew that God loveth his children, came to understand that the meaning of the fruit-bearing tree of life is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things (1 Nephi 11:17-25). Later, Alma the Elder and his people entered into a covenant and form a church based on love and good desires (Mosiah 18:21, 28), a covenant directly tied to the waters of Mormon: Behold here are the waters of Mormon and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized ?; they clapped their hands for joy and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts (Mosiah 18:8-11). Alma the Younger later recalled the song of redeeming love that his father and others had sung at the waters of Mormon (Alma 5:3-9, 26; see Mosiah 18:30). Our editor, Mormon, who was himself named after the land of Mormon and its waters (3Nephi5:12), repeatedly spoke of charity as everlasting love or the pure love of Christ [that] endureth forever (Moroni 7:47-48; 8:16-17; 26). All of this has implications for Latter-day Saints or Mormons who, as children of the covenant, must endure to the end in Christlike love as Mormon and Moroni did, particularly in days of diminishing faith, faithfulness, and love (see, e.g., Mormon 3:12; contrast Moroni 9:5).