Likely a short form of Maurice or Morris, from Latin Mauricius meaning dark-skinned or Moorish.
Mory is a warm diminutive form of Maurice or Morris, names ultimately descended from the Latin Mauritius, which referred to a person from Mauretania — the ancient North African region roughly corresponding to modern Morocco and western Algeria. The Moors, or Mauri, were so associated with dark complexions that "Mauritius" became shorthand for swarthiness in medieval European naming; yet the name shed that descriptor over centuries, carried instead by saints and scholars. The most celebrated bearer of the root name was Saint Maurice, a third-century Roman legionary commander who, according to tradition, refused an emperor's order to massacre Christian civilians and was martyred along with his entire Theban Legion near Lake Geneva.
His cult spread rapidly through medieval Europe, making Maurice a name of military honor and Christian martyrdom. Morris dances — England's beloved folk tradition — may owe their name to a medieval association with Moorish performance styles, weaving the name into English cultural identity. Mory as a standalone name gained particular resonance in West African and diaspora communities, where it appears in Guinean and Malian naming traditions, sometimes as a shortened form of Moussa or simply as an independent given name.
The narrator of Camara Laye's celebrated 1953 novel "The African Child" has a companion named Kouyaté, but the name Mory itself echoes through the griot tradition of the Mande people. Short, warm, and immediately friendly, Mory carries centuries of geography and grace.