jchan1 said:
My bro in law's wife wants to use her husband's Dominican grandmama's nickname as a name for her baby (if it's a girl). Problem is, she doesn't know what it means and I can't find it either. It's pronounced ma-hay. Any ideas what it means or any negative connotations?
Thanks!
the fact that it was your husbands grandmother's nickname suggests it could be a composite, of which the first syllable 'ma' could be from the abbreviation of 'mamá' (mother), and the other syllable 'hey' could be an abbreviation of the archaic 'agüela' (from abuela, or grandmother), and then shortened to 'gué', and together 'ma-gue' or ma-hay', in a similar process as the English term 'grandma' and 'gramma' for grandmother. Or maybe the nick could be from the aboriginal Taino word 'maguey', which means agave, a plant whose fibers were used to make textiles, and the sap to make alcoholic beverages...
