Its earlier name was "Way of the Philistines", a reference to the Way passing through the Philistine Plain. At this point the Way branches into two Ways - one along the Mediterranean coast, through Megiddo, and the other following an inland route through the Jezreel Valley, the Sea of Galilee and Dan.
The Via Maris was crossed by other trading routes, so that one could travel from Africa to Europe or from Asia to Africa.
"Via Maris" is Latin and means the Way of the Sea.
The name is based on a passage from the Vulgate, the New Testament in Latin translation. From the Gospel according to Matthew ("Secundum Mattheum"), chapter 4 verse 15:
terra Zabulon et terra Nephthalim via maris trans Iordanen Galilaeae gentium
(the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles)
There is also a reference to the Via Maris in Isaiah 9 verse 1.