import re
 re.sub('&([^;]+);', r'&.\1.;', 'sdsfjsdlflsdfsdf&asdasd;dfsdfgsfdgfsd&dsfdsaf; &sfgfdgds;')
 import htmlentitydefs
 result = []
 for x in a:
     n = htmlentitydefs.codepoint2name.get(ord(x))
     if n is not None: x = '&%s;' % n

     result.append(x)