Marmadoc Brandybuck ‘the Masterful’

Marmadoc is a real Welsh name, a variant of the more familiar 'Marmaduke', deriving from Máel Máedóc, 'devotee of Máedóc' (Máedóc was an Irish saint who lived in the sixth and seventh centuries CE). In form, it is well suited to Marmadoc Brandybuck, who was the son and successor of Master Madoc Brandybuck, and thus in this sense the name can be read as 'follower of Madoc'. (The Hobbit-name Madoc's name can be connected to a Welsh word meaning 'fortunate', though the name of the saint had a rather more complicated etymology, for which see the entry for Madoc Brandybuck.)