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Liivamadala (Liivamadal)
Sandy shallows.
Madli (Madli/Madel/Madle/etc.)
Name chosen to create a woman’s name group. This one, like Maud in English, being a diminutive of Magdaleena, qv, and I’m sure the fact that Tallinn Deputy Mayor’s first name is Madle has absolutely nothing to do with this. Yet another example of spelling variations, with over 60 examples ranging through Leen, Liena, Maada, Malline, Meedy and even Mallis, a squishing together of Magdalena and Elisabeth.
Marmori (Marmor)
Marble. New street assigned 2020-08-19. Interestingly: määrama, to assign, appoint, decree, etc., is just one typo away from määrima, to befoul, defile or grease someone’s palms…
Meeta (Meeta/Meta)
Name chosen to create a woman’s name group, this one being a diminutive of Margareta. Margaret of Antioch would have been a good candidate, one of the Catholic church’s ‘Fourteen Holy Helpers’ called upon to prevent diseases. This lady, the medieval equivalent of an antivax influencer, offered bargain indulgences to those who ‘liked’ her book… Eaten by dragon. Probably fictitious, certainly mythological. But no, just a name… “Just a name!...” Following the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC), Greece adopted a variety of Persian vocabulary, including μαργαριτάρι (margaritari), meaning ‘pearl’, but the Persian murwārīd came ultimately from Old Iranian *mrgāhrīta, “derived from a [bird’s] shell”, in other words: oyster. Oddly, French Marguérite, which switched to daisy in the 13-14th C, is thought to derive from Sanskrit manjari ‘pearl’ or ‘flowering bead’ (reflecting the flower’s rounded central yellow disk floret, the color of which gave the name ‘margarine’) while its ‘casting pearls before swine’ retains its earlier ‘pearl’ acception in “jeter des marguerites aux pourceaux”. Meeta is also the diminutive of Mathilda, another myxomatotic rabbit-hole away from which I shall gladly waltz. See Madli.
