Looking of meaning of nepal in sanskrit or nepali language is wrong. We have to look on what is origin of nepal. In old days, only kathmandu valley is referred as nepal. Even now, older people says they are going to Nepal which refer to kathmandu. So nepal is derived from name of kathmandu valley before Prithivi Narayan Shah came here. In Newari, Nepal is called Nepa de (de means desh or country). The language and the people are called Newa (wa mean to speak). So the real root is Nepa not Nepal. So we should try to find meaning of Nepa instead of Nepal. Newars refer kathmandu is nye, lalitpur as yala and bhaktapur as khopa. The valley was name nye-pa which means flats of kathmandu.

Also Newar's use a different calender with tithis which is based on lunar calender. The new year is on the day of Govardan puja (day after laxmi puja). The calendar is called nepa sambat (nepal sambat in nepali) and it is running in 1130 years now.

Looking the meaning of Nepal in Nepali or Sanskrit is like searching for origin of kumari in Gorkha.