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Hi, guys. I've been looking for years, and finally and serendipitously this morning I found a real, live reference to the Scottish male name Malise.
From www.slate.com: "The term Islamofascism was first used in 1990 in Britain's Independent newspaper by Scottish writer Malise Ruthven, who was writing about the way in which traditional Arab dictatorships used religious appeals in order to stay in power."
I'd encountered it decades ago in a section of Chambers Dictionary devoted to given names - they are an Edinburgh firm, and quite a few of their entries show it! But I'd never found an example, living or fictional, until now.
My understanding, and that of Chambers, is that mal- = servant (as in Malcolm) and -ise = Jesus. Before I rush to submit it as a new entry, can anyone confirm or refute this?
I've often seen posters to naming boards smugly stating their refusal to name an innocent child anything to do with "bad"ness or "evil", so the French phoneme /mal/ is out for them. It would be fun to be able to give them a counter-example like this ... if it is one!
From www.slate.com: "The term Islamofascism was first used in 1990 in Britain's Independent newspaper by Scottish writer Malise Ruthven, who was writing about the way in which traditional Arab dictatorships used religious appeals in order to stay in power."
I'd encountered it decades ago in a section of Chambers Dictionary devoted to given names - they are an Edinburgh firm, and quite a few of their entries show it! But I'd never found an example, living or fictional, until now.
My understanding, and that of Chambers, is that mal- = servant (as in Malcolm) and -ise = Jesus. Before I rush to submit it as a new entry, can anyone confirm or refute this?
I've often seen posters to naming boards smugly stating their refusal to name an innocent child anything to do with "bad"ness or "evil", so the French phoneme /mal/ is out for them. It would be fun to be able to give them a counter-example like this ... if it is one!
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Replies
Malise is certainly a historical Gaelic name, popular among the Earls of Strathearn for example - see the wiki article for a list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Strathearn. and Malise Graham is another important figure if I remember rightly.
In terms of modern use though I think they seem to be a dying breed lol (literally in this guys case - http://chears.org/viewImage.php?id=25)
A lot of traditional highland names have been severely anglicised and name nerds has Miles listed as a variant so I guess many potential Malise's might have become Miles.
The wiki article confirms that it is indeed just a more simplified spelling of Maoliosa and it's variants. It also confirms the meaning as servant of Jesus. www.namenerds.com also has this. Going by the similarities of Jesus / Iosa I think I'd be confident with that and maol/mael is definitely servant like in Malcolm.
I never thought if the mal element on it's own, the overall similarity with malice bothers me more! I didn't think Malcolm had any problems, but maybe it's different here.
In terms of modern use though I think they seem to be a dying breed lol (literally in this guys case - http://chears.org/viewImage.php?id=25)
A lot of traditional highland names have been severely anglicised and name nerds has Miles listed as a variant so I guess many potential Malise's might have become Miles.
The wiki article confirms that it is indeed just a more simplified spelling of Maoliosa and it's variants. It also confirms the meaning as servant of Jesus. www.namenerds.com also has this. Going by the similarities of Jesus / Iosa I think I'd be confident with that and maol/mael is definitely servant like in Malcolm.
I never thought if the mal element on it's own, the overall similarity with malice bothers me more! I didn't think Malcolm had any problems, but maybe it's different here.
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There is an Irish name Maoliosa which means servant of Jesus( Maol = servant and Iosa = Jesus) So it would seem likely that Malise has the same meaning.
Also AFAIK there is a Malise in one of Jilly Cooper's earlier novels - the one about showjumping, I think.
Edt change God to Jesus.
Also AFAIK there is a Malise in one of Jilly Cooper's earlier novels - the one about showjumping, I think.
Edt change God to Jesus.
This message was edited 10/31/2007, 9:00 AM
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