Meaning of Marlon?
On this site it says the name Marlon is a pet name for Marc. However I've looked it up on everyother name site i can find and they all claim it means either little hawk or little falcon in french. Does anyone know it's real meaning?
vote up1vote down

Replies

My dictionary (Leslie Dunkling 1983) says:
"Modern use is due entirely to Marlon Brando..
[his] family is said to be of French origin..
Marlon is not a French first name, and the closest one can get to it in a French context is the family name Marlin, indicating an ancestor whose name was Merlin."Presumably the French Merlin surname would have been derived like Andy said, since the English male first name Merlin has an unrelated etymology from approximated Welsh.. however my book suggests the feminine English first name Merlin is for the bird.. whoa off topic. - chazda
vote up1vote down
Personally....I wouldn't Trust ANY one of those sites. Their etymology is WAY off. They don;t even show you the word they got it from. I wouldn't trust those sites at ALL.
I'd definately stick with this site's meaning.Lala
vote up1vote down
DittoPlus, all those sites are essentially clones of each other.General advice: Avoid any name site that's commercial or has the word "baby" in it.Miranda
vote up1vote down
I'm not 100% sure since it's Old French, but I'm French and I've never heard of a word like "marlon" or "marle", -on being a diminutive...
Oh wait, there's the word "merle", but it doesn't mean hawk or falcon, but blackbird... And it's French, not Old French...
vote up1vote down
I remember there was a guy on this board claiming tjat the FRrench word "merle" could also mean "falcon". This is what he wrote:"Lumping up the multiple sources, a 'merlin' is defined as:
A small falcon of northern European & American regions. It has predominantly dark plumage and a black-striped tail. The scientific names are 'falco columbarius' (pigeon hawk), 'falco lithofalco' (stone hawk?) and 'falco salon/aesalon' (salt/copper/hall/room halk? [purely guesswork]). The lumped derivations are as follows:
Middle English 'merlin' > Old English 'merlion' > Anglo-Norman 'merilun' > French '[é]merillon' > Old French 'esmerillon' > Old French 'esmeril' > Old High German 'smirl' / German 'schmerl' > Latin 'merula' meaning 'blackbird.' "But he was referring MERLIN, not to MARLON.Andy ;—)
vote up1vote down
Maybe "merle" could mean both "blackbird" and "falcon" (although it would be strange since these birds are really different) in Old French. I dunno.
The only word used in French nowadays is "merle" meaning "blackbird" though. Not "merlin" (who is used by old people to say "wizard") or marlon.
vote up1vote down
Falcon is "FAUCON" in Frech, according to my dctionary. What other sites did you look this name up on?Lala
vote up1vote down
The farthest you could go with translating "falcon" with something else than "faucon" would be "aigle", "condor", "vautour", "rapace", "busard" or "buse". Anything else would be off-topic...
This bird topic is getting fun. :)
vote up1vote down