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I'll answer, but personally mine's a yawn. Lillian Angèle is simply "lily angel;" perhaps it makes more sense to say "lily-like angel" or "angel of lilies."

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My maiden name literally means "moody," as in emotionally labile (!), and my married last name literally means sands, as in desert or, more preferably, beach. Not sure how to add all those up; "emotionally labile angel of lilies in the sands," I guess, but... yikes!

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Just for extra flavor, here's a picture my husband thinks is nifty, of an angel on the beach; she even looks moody!
http://artbysan.com/ART/cp11.jpg

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And one I like of an angel with lilies, though no sand is involved and there is no reason to think her moody.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.caroleranney.com/AngelLily.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.caroleranney.com/ornament4.html&h=600&w=526&sz=33&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=QSjPk5uxQbVVvM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dangel%2Bwith%2Blily%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GFRG_en___US221%26sa%3DN

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My kids:

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David Alexander - beloved defender (love this!)

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Lillian Scarlett Mahalia - distinctive woman with red lilies (see my defense of this meaning below)

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Sophia Ophelia Seraphina - wise, helpful, fiery angel (!)

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Gideon Brody - feller or hewer (of trees) in(to) a ditch (?? :p )
[Want to add that at the time we chose Brody for G's mn, we were under the (mistaken) impression that it was a Scottish name for "second son." Oops. Whatever book I read this in probably got it wrong by extrapolating from someone who was a second "son of Bruaideadh" (Gaelic surname). This was before I found BtN!]

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Now then. As for Lillian Scarlett Mahalia...

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This is a difficult one because, while Lillian's easy enough, Mahalia's origins are in dispute. I must take issue with Mahalia being automatically assumed to be a derivation of Mahlah (meaning "weak or sick"). There are Tallulah and Talulla, after all.

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Because I named her for my great-great-grandmother, whose name was actually Mahala (no i), I thought to use her name's meaning for my daughter's name's meaning; but that's just as complicated. Mahala is in some quarters said to be a "Native American" name that means simply "woman;" using that meaning seems more reasonable to me than using the derivation Mahlah, because I know my family has some Native blood, though which tribes are involved is unclear (Comanche and Cherokee are the most likely, and possibly others). However, even the Native American language origin of Mahala is in dispute. See this most excellent article on false NA meanings:
http://www.native-languages.org/wrongnames.htm

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My great-great-grandmother's name, which was spelled Mahala, was actually pronounced mah-HAY-ley (quite reliable info; my grandmother distinctly remembers; her grandmother lived until my grandmother was in her twenties). This leads me to believe that, just as the cited article states, her mn was the Cherokee/Choctaw name Mahaley, which apparently has no known meaning of its own apart from "woman," because, simply, it is a common name to call a woman. So. Clear as mud, but "woman" it is.

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Not only that, but dear Pavlos, he of great Ἐτυμολογικάl gifts, has also informed me that Scarlett has a much older derivation than originally believed, and does not simply mean "cloth seller," or even "red cloth seller," or whatever. See this:
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/arcview.php?id=2964121&board=ot
Answers.com seems to differ with dear P about sigillatos: "perhaps from Medieval Greek *sigillatos, from Latin sigillātus, decorated with raised figures, from sigilla, little figures, pl. of sigillum, sigil. See sigil." It goes on to say that sigil derives thus: "Latin sigillum, diminutive of signum, sign."

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So the oldest origin of Scarlett is rather murky but appears ultimately to be either (or both!) "sleek, shiny, magnificent" or "signal". One of the many definitions of "signal", according to Dictionary.com, is adjective: "unusual; notable; outstanding: [as in] a signal exploit."

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I have long held, and said on these boards, that for any parent the ultimate meaning of any name, once given to your child, is, simply, "my child." Therefore I feel perfectly comfortable and entirely within my rights to define Scarlett Mahalia as "distinctive woman".

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I choose "distinctive" for Scarlett given the various ingredients of "magnificent" (from the Greek sigillatos per P), "signal" (as adjective, therefore encompassing "unusual, notable, outstanding"), and, yes, the bright red color it has more recently denoted.

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I choose to validate the meaning of Mahalia as "woman" because, in addition to the evidently common, historical Native usage of Mahala / Mahaley as an undefined female name, I take into account all the following for my daughter:
her sex (female)
her honored ancestor's sex (female) and occupation (midwife; = "with woman")
her mother's occupation (which I consider a variation on the theme of midwife)
the fact that she was her mother's first daughter (a signal event!)
the fact that she was her mother's first child to be born at home with a midwife (another signal event!)

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Notable women helping women is an ancestral theme for her as an individual. Therefore including "woman" with "distinctive" seems more than justified. I say "distinctive woman with red lilies" because red has to make an appearance somewhere in there (after all, I chose Scarlett because red's my favorite color!), and red flowers make more sense than a red woman.

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So. Lillian Scarlett Mahalia means "distinctive woman with red lilies."

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Because I said so.

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:-)

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~Lillian~
Proud daughter of Ann and John
Proud sister of Lauren and Leah
Proud wife of David
Proud mother of Alexander, Scarlett, Sophia, and Gideon

This message was edited 5/14/2008, 6:25 AM