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Re: Origin of "Molly, Mali, Moli, Molli", etc.
If it has the spelling Mali (or Mahli maybe), I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sanskrit name, but Molly, Molli, and Mollie are most likely not. Molly/Molli/Mollie was originally a short form of Mary. It's actually English (and also used in Ireland).

This message was edited 6/4/2005, 3:34 PM

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There is indeed a sanskrit mAli of unknown origin (possibly related to a place name: all the words mAl- have something to do with garland of lowers) but it is masculine (meaning garlanded or gardener or garland peddler) and, though a common word in many modern Indian languages, is rarely used today as a name. mAlinI, the corresponding female form (which could, in addition, mean wife of a gardener) is however still alive.I never thought Molly had anything to do with Sanskrit.
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would you happen to know how both the female and male forms of this name are written?
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Confused ... we were talking of the Indian words which sound like this, and, as I stated, I do not think they are related to the name Molly. But sure, I can tell you about the Indian words, except I do not understand your question about how they are written. There are a dozen Indian languages and, except when used as names, they are almost never written in English. The male name Mali I know only from Sanskrit, and the female Malini exists in many modern Indian languages. Do you want me to draw them in Devnagari, the most common script in which Sanskrit is written? If your computer displays unicode properly then here it is: male Mali माली or मालि (both spellings are noted, though etymologically, the first is correct) and female Malini मालिनी. If you want them in the other dozen scripts, write back and I can draw them for you :-)Sorry for any misunderstanding on my part.
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Question:Could it perhaps come from a Tamil phrase"maligaipoo" (prn MULL-ee-gai-poo. You know how Sanskrit letters are translated)Mali, or Malipoo, as it is shortened is the name of the flower. I haven't seen it used as a name, but could I possibly be what he was thinking of?
*Lala*
All My Possesions for a Moment
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Could be. Actually I often wondered whether the Sanskrit mAlA (garland) / mAli (gardener) / malinI (garland seller) is itself at root straight borrowings.
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Been meaning to ask you something.And that's for quite a while now. Can I please as what's your posting name is?I'm curious, since I of course, can't read this kind of "letters" (If I can describe it as letters, that is.) If you don't want to tell, that's okay of course. :-)
"I'm Not Lazy, I'm Just A Very Calm Person!"
Charlie Blue
~My 14 Darling !'s ~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!! & 2 ?'s ~ ??(Name's in the profile.)
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I apologize for my idiosyncracies affecting others. I was disappointed that by default most installations (a) turn of rendering of Indic scripts so that you see ????? rather than squiggles you don't understand :-), and (b) People's spam filters discriminate against all non-English senders instead of only Korean and Chinese :-), so I started using my name in Bengali.Since this is not the lounge, let me bring it on topic by referring to http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=193774&board=gen
where I explained my name (actually http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=171626&board=gen is also relevant) . My posting name is my real name: sig of either message gives my real homepage (and the index of my genealogy linked from there explains all names that occur in my genealogy: so I am back on topic, somewhat)
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Ahh... Thank you.It's so great to know. :-)I, by the way, really likes that Indic script. It's so much more "colorful" if you will, to look at than "our" ordinary boring script types. And I really love, that you use it for your posing name. It is such a shame though, that it is messes up.Thanks again for explaining it to me.
"I'm Not Lazy, I'm Just A Very Calm Person!"
Charlie Blue
~My 14 Darling !'s ~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!! & 2 ?'s ~ ??(Name's in the profile.)
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