Girl · Malayalam and Sanskrit · Hindu
Unnimaya
ഉണ്ണിമായSay it OON-ni-maa-ya
- Meaning
- Little Māyā: Malayalam uṇṇi, "infant, little one", with Sanskrit māyā Hermann Gundert, p. 127
- Say it
- OON-ni-maa-ya
- Spelling in Malayalam
- ഉണ്ണിമായ
- Spelling in English
- Unnimaya, Unni Maya
Unnimaya
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Unnimaya meaning
Unnimaya (ഉണ്ണിമായ) is a Hindu girl's name of Malayalam and Sanskrit origin.
Little Māyā: Malayalam uṇṇi, "infant, little one", with Sanskrit māyā
Unnimaya (ഉണ്ണിമായ) joins two words. Uṇṇi is an old Malayalam word for a small child: Gundert's dictionary gives it as "suckling, young, infant", and Kerala families use it as a loving prefix, as in Unnikrishnan, the child Krishna, and Unniyarcha, the warrior heroine of the northern Kerala ballads. Māyā is Sanskrit. Monier-Williams gives its earliest senses as art, wisdom and extraordinary power and its later sense as illusion; it also lists compassion and a name of Lakshmi. Together the name reads as "little Maya". It is a distinctly Malayalam name, also written Unni Maya. The actress Unnimaya Prasad won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Character Actress for her role in Joji (2021).
Source: Hermann Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), p. 127 · entry uṇṇi (ഉണ്ണി) · See the entry · checked 30 Oct 2026
References: Gundert, uṇṇi, p. 127 · Monier-Williams, māyā, p. 811 · Wikipedia, Unni (Indian name) · Wikipedia, Unniyarcha · Wikipedia, Unnimaya Prasad
Famous namesakes
- Unnimaya Prasad, Malayalam film actress (Joji)
How the name is built
- Unni ഉണ്ണി: a suckling, a young child, an infant
Hermann Gundert 127 - Maya മായ: art, wisdom, extraordinary power; later illusion; also compassion
Monier-Williams 811
Spellings
Unnimaya · Unni Maya