Meriadoc Brandybuck to be an actual phonetic transcription of the name in Tolkien's invented language of Westron, which Tolkien said he transliterated to English as follows: The nickname "Merry" represents his actual nickname "Kali" which meant "handsome, happy", and "Meriadoc" serves as a plausible name from which a nickname meaning "happy" could be derived. Alternately, "The Middle-Earth Encyclopedia" writes that Meriadoc means "joyful" or "cheerful," while Merry means "having high spirits." Théoden called Merry "Holdwine", and the Hobbit was thus known as such in the records of Rohan. It most probably derives from the Old English words "hold" and "wine", respectively meaning
Samwise Gamgee centuries ago being the same as yours." He sent Gamgee a signed copy of all three volumes of the book. However, the incident sparked a nagging worry in Tolkien's mind, as he recorded in his journal: "For some time I lived in fear of receiving a letter signed 'S. Gollum'. That would have been more difficult to deal with." After publication of "The Lord of the Rings", Tolkien traced the origin of the name back to Gamgee and, eventually, the earlier English surname 'de Gamaches'. In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of "The Lord of the Rings", Sam was voiced