Seems like a tendency to name software after female names from the victorian era. Interesting.
Far from being a Victorian-era name, it was most popular in the 1960's, and remains more popular today than it was during the Victorian era[2].
However, it was a popular name in literature during the Victorian era[3], with mentions hitting a peak in 1908 (technically that was the Edwardian era, but close enough). Depending on your smoothness settings, it does appear that Maria was actually more commonly mentioned in 1999 than in 1908, though.
Interestingly, there is a dramatic dip in mentions during the 1920s. I don't have a good theory as to why this was.
[1] http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/namesbystate.cgi
[2] http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/maria
[3] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Maria&year_sta...