Which welsh names do you like?

Hello, I just wonder which welsh names do you like because I think there is wide quantity of beautiful names. Me personally, I like Nia. Do you think that I can put a welsh name to a child who is not from the UK?

One of my favourite names of Welsh origin is Meredith.

Though I know it as a female name, I believe itā€™s more commonly male in Wales itself.

Which country are you from? Many countries have names from other languages, such as Hebrew (John, Rachel), Greek (Peter, ZoĆ«), or Italian (Mario, Stella)ā€¦ why not Welsh?

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It shouldnā€™t really matter if you give a child a Welsh name even though youā€™re not in Wales. I have a friend who was given an Irish name even though sheā€™s English. Many people give their children names that originate from other countries, or even of plants, fruit and place names! As long as youā€™re happy giving your child a Welsh name it should be fine.

My favourite Welsh name is Heulwen. If I ever have a daughter I would hope to name her Heulwen.

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Dwiā€™n hoffi ā€˜Heddā€™ for a boy, which means ā€˜peaceā€™. I like ā€˜Emsylā€™ for a girl.

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The only real problem is getting it pronounced properly. Meredith gets to be ā€˜Meredithā€™. I doubt many English people would have a clue about Heulwen, and that would include her teachers!
I have always liked Rhiannon and Angharad, Gareth and Geraint, but I suspect only Gareth would sound right in an English classroom!

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There are actually lots of names in common use that are of Welsh origin, so yes, go for it. Alan, Bronwen, Erin, Glenda, Trevor, Megan, Owen, Gareth (as mentioned), and Arthur of course :wink:

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Thatā€™s true but itā€™s important to think about how the name will be pronounced elsewhere. In Australia, I knew of a Dewi who was known as Dewey ( of Donald Duck fame). A Iwan is known as You-on, and a Meinir is sometimes called Mania. As for the beautiful name Angharad, the possibilities are endless. Bronwen in Australia is a popular name but usually spelt incorrectly as Bronwyn and Megan is invariably pronounced Meagan. How about SiĆ¢n, chosen as a babyā€™s name by Tasmanian parents and pronounced by them as See-ann? At a local store in Hobart there is a Sionned who maintains that her name is pronounced Sinnead.

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There was one on TV a while back. I forget why she had a moment of fame, but she was called Sy-an throughout! (thatā€™s with the ā€˜yā€™ as in English ā€˜skyā€™!)

Iā€™ve named my son Rhys and two dogs Anwen and Nia in Canada. There were other Welsh names I also loved, but I used my German husband to figure out which ones were likely to be butchered by teachers, etc., here.

Other favourites (and fairly pronounceable, although we just got a phone call asking for ā€œRiseā€ last night) are Ffion for a girl and Dai for a boy.

There are so many lovely Welsh names, Iā€™d say definitely go ahead and use a Welsh name, but do be cognizant of how much trouble theyā€™re going to run into with pronunciation.

I do hope you said, ā€œWho? Oh, sorry, do you mean Rhys?ā€

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Considering that the UK is only a 300 year old London stateā€¦and Welsh is an ancient cultureā€¦I donā€™t think anyone will mind.

In fact they will be flattered :wink:

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LOL! No, as soon as the person said that, I knew that he didnā€™t know Rhys; so, I just told him he doesnā€™t live here anymore (which is true - heā€™s grown up and moved to the U.S. last summer.).

Absolutely! Why not? If itā€™s a name you like, you should do it.

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My best friend in Walesā€™ name was Heulwen. We called her Holi for short.

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I love Gethin! It just stuck with me after watching ā€˜Prideā€™. Iā€™m a huge fan of names in general, and I find Celtic ones especially beautiful. I have no idea which are ā€œnormalā€ Welsh names and which are ancient, but I also like Bronwen, Lowri, Caradoc, Griffith, Llewellyn, and Penrose.

I also once came across the name/word Gwawrddydd, but Iā€™m not sure if people actually see it as a name? I like the look and sound of it a lot, but then again Iā€™m not a native :wink:

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My son is called Deri which means oak trees in Welsh I think! We were living in England at the time and there werenā€™t many Deris around! He is now living in Sweden now so he might be the only one! He did come over recently to run the World .championships Half Marathon which he did in a very credible 75 minutes! I might say he is very proud of his name and his Welsh heritage.

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My partner is Angharad, which is a pretty common name in Wales. But when we lived in England she often had to say her name 3 or 4 times and people still couldnā€™t pronounce it! (And my American friends are especially discombobulated by it.) So I would echo the suggestion that it should be straightforward to pronounce!

My sister-in-law is Gwenllian, which is tough on the non-Welsh in its full form, but she usually gets called Gwen.

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