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[Facts] Malania
I think it is a form of Melania but spelled different. The origin is greek. How do you pronounce this?
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Ancestry.com gives two possible origins for the surname Malan:
1. French: nickname from Old French malan(t) ‘sore’, ‘ulcer’ (Latin malandria).
2. Czech and Slovak: nickname for a small man, a derivative of malý (see Maly). In South Africa we trace it back to French Huguenot and Dutch settlers, not Czech ... and I could readily imagine someone wanting to use the ln Malan as a fn, having a girl, and (probably inspired by Melania or just Melanie, which does indeed have a Greek origin) tweaking the ending to make it look fem. Here we'd say mah LAHN ee ah, since we pronounce the ln as mah LAHN.Where did you find it?
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It was on babynamecenter. Thanks.
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