Melleny

[Anand.Nayak at unifr.ch]

Philip  wrote:
>>
>>My friend  "adopted" (ie sent money to) an Indian little
>>girl, whose name is Melleny.
>>Do you have any idea of what this name can mean?
>>The -y sounds quite anglophone.

Patrick Olivelle's exegesis:

Philip: it may originally be 'Maalinii', (first a and last i long), also in
modern time 'Maalanii'--the garlanded one and similar meanings.

Tobias surmised:
Could it be an anglicising of Melanie?!

Dear Philp. Patrick and Olivelle,

I have a niece in Bangalore whose name is Melanie. Her friends write it in
all possible ways: Malini, Melleny, Melony.... You know there are about 17
million christians in India and we were until some years ago forced to have
an European saint's name at our baptism. I was for example baptised with
the name "Boniface" which I changed to "Anand" when I was adult. The
European missionaries just couldn't believe us when we said that we were
going to be the first christian  saints with names like "Krishnamoorthy"
Ramagopalachari" "Janadhana" and so forth. And so were forced to have
ghastly names like Victor, Caesar and Napoleon... We have difficulty to
pronounce English names. Sorry. We make spelling mistakes. There is a
beautiful restaurant in my home town  Bangalore  (on the Brigade Road !)
called "Quality". But if you ever wish to find it,  ask for "Kallatti".
Philip, please send my greeting to sweet Melleny or to Patrick's Maalinii..


Sarvesham svastirbhavatu        May all be prosperous
sarvesham santirbhavatu         May all be  peaceful
sarvesham purnambhavatu         May all be whole
sarvesam mangalambhavatu        May all be happy

INSTITUT DE MISSIOLOGIE ET DE SCIENCE DES RELIGIONS
INSTITUT FUER MISSIONS- UND RELIGIONSWISSENSCHAFTEN
Université de Fribourg
Route du Jura
CH-1700 Fribourg
Tel:    026/ 300 74 38 (Office)
        026/ 475 27 91 (Private)
Fax;    026/ 300 9768

URL: http://www.unifr.ch/imr

Prof.Dr.Anand NAYAK