When Mele Tau'aika was born in 1876, in Kolomotu'a, Tongatapu, Tonga, her father, Tau'aika, was 35 and her mother, 'Olivia, was 21. She married ʻIsikeli Fanua in 1898, in Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. She died in 1974, in Lofanga, Ha'apai, Tonga, at the age of 98, and was buried in Tonga.
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Tonga ceases to be a British protectorate and becomes fully independent within the British Commonwealth.
Probably a contracted form of Meriel , but also associated with the small class of girls' names derived from birds, since it is identical in form with Old French merle ‘blackbird’ (Latin merula). The name came to public notice in the 1930s with the actress Merle Oberon ( 1911–79 , born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson ).
Dictionary of First Names © Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges 1990, 2003, 2006.
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