#I checked both eldamo and parf edhellen for this; they gave the same information

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Sindarin ‘maed’ stems from Quenya ‘maitë’ (of a similar meaning, also meaning ‘hand, handed’ as a suffix e.g., Angrod’s epessë ‘Angamaitë’ meaning iron-handed). So yes, the pun holds up under in-universe scrutiny as well.

Honestly I have so many feelings about Maedhros being a mash up of his mothers name for him, and his brothers’ nick name for him, rather than just a Sindran alternative to his Quenya name, because it means his brothers were just yelling OI REDHEAD! All of the time, like in the heat of battle Celegorm is just like HEY GINGER CAN YOU STAB THIS GUY FOR ME! With enough frequency the Sinda just actually thought it was his name. Which is actually just peak sibling.

Plus it makes his name basically mean attractive redhead which is EQUALLY funny