Welsh boy names

Well said @Chunkymenrock.

@Leytonladee, Why suggest a name you can't say?

It's a shame everyone is so quick to say English people won't try with a "foreign" name or will pronounce it wrong. I never minded when my Welsh speaking grandparents and family pronounced my very common English name in their own special way and I don't mind when the non -English people I work with pronounce my name slightly differently either. Why would I?
It's nothing to do with being English.
As far as Welsh boys names go, it has to be Taliesin, Tali for short.

Llion is NOT pronounced Theeon. I can't believe a pp would say such a thing. Utterly ignorant. It rhymes, we can say that much, but the Welsh 'll' makes a soft and unique sound.

Love Griff but I don't like the welsh spelling and he'll be forever spelling/pronouncing it correctly

Omg op I was just about to start a thread identical to this! Husband is English and we live in England so don't want anything too welsh but I do want a welsh name! I haven't read the thread yet but my favourite welsh boys name is Aled which was vetoed 😤

I love Emrys

Iolo and Trystan are my favourites but I'm biased

I wouldn't have any worries about the Muslim connection with Idris since it is also a Welsh name. I'd just say so.

I wish DH didn't think it was too out there!

With regards to Idris our other concern is that it’s also a Muslim name and when I suggested it previously somebody accused us of cultural appropriation until I pointed out it’s also a Welsh name. Over the past 10 years I’ve met 3 kids called Idris in london - two were Muslim and one had welsh heritage.

Yes, that's my misgiving with the name too - I think being accused of cultural appropriation would be annoying.

I'm fully aware a certain number of people would see names like Alys, Mari, Harri and Tomos and think we were trying to be 'younique' or that we couldn't spell Alice, Mary, Harry and Thomas but I think I'd rather people thought I couldn't spell than that I was appropriating someone else's culture.

At least 'actually it's also Welsh' is a quick way to shut someone who thinks they're being clever up, though.

My aunt does that with my cousin's name, which is Welsh and ends in 'I'. So many people were like 'shouldn't that be 'ie' or 'y' on the end that she just gave them a mini lecture in Welsh phonetics. They never asked again

Hard enough to name a baby without insisting that other suppress their own accent to pronounce it.
@ZoyaTheDestroyer, it's not a matter of accent, it's mispronunciation. There's a big difference.

Hefin
Iago
Ianto
Ioan
Islwyn
Owain
Macsen
Emrys

I really like ‘I’ names 😂🙈 all fairly easy to pronounce once heard I think

I love Emrys, Macsen, Gethin, Ioan, Huw and Iolo. Or anglicized Owen, Evan, Tristan and Dylan. Osian is okay, I prefer Idris though - I don't see why sharing his first name with an actor matters? (there must be a fair few other Idris's out there).

Owain
Gethin
Tomos
Carwyn
Cai

Hard enough to name a baby without insisting that other suppress their own accent to pronounce it.

I find reactions to Welsh names vary a lot in England. I was born and raised in England, with a Welsh name.

The vast majority of people either don't react, ask me the provenance of the name or compliment it and most people make an effort to pronounce it. I do get some rude comments though, from 'what on earth is that?' to 'can I call you X instead?' to 'oh I'll never manage that, I'll call you Y instead'. It gets misspelled a lot. My peers at school almost all learned how to say it, a sizeable minority of my teachers didn't.

Now I'm in London hardly anyone bats an eyelid at my name and I work with people with names like Geraint, Angharad and Hefin. I notice more positive reactions here. I would happily use a Welsh name for my own DC. Especially something like Alys, Mari, Mali, Tomos, Osian or Owen.

I would be cautious of some of the Welsh letters which don't exist in English though, like Ll. It's why I won't use Esyllt, my favourite Welsh name because I don't think I can live with 'Ess-ilt'

Iolo
Ianto
Tomos

I have a Harri (pretty hard for people to get that wrong!).

Iolo?

More mainstream:
Rhys
David
Gareth
Owen
Evan
Aled
Huw

Less mainstream?
Cadfael
Griffith
Dewi
Emlyn
Geraint
Gwilim

I rest my case.

Llion - pronounced Theeon

Not at all precious. If I wanted to use the name Rhys, Dylan or Alun, I would bear in mind that my little Rhys/Dylan/Alun would get called Rees/Dillun/Alan a lot of the time, and I could choose whether or not to use it on that basis.

If you don't speak Welsh, then surely something like David would reflect your heritage and be a lot less hassle.

Most Welsh names sound horrible (to me) when said as if they were English.

@DacwMamYnDwad my name too. Both Welsh, both fine.
To me it sounds like you're being way too precious. Just allow non Welsh people to enjoy our language and heritage and names.
Feels like you wanna keep all the Welsh names to Wales because only you know how to spell and pronounce them you get this a lot MN. It's weird territorial snobbery!

And yes, I have extensive experience of it. I've worked on the Welsh borders and in other parts of the UK. Often in multicultural environments.

Some of my relatives work in non-Welsh speaking parts of the UK and would say the same.

Some of the examples I've given are ones I've seen/heard. The transposed vowels is surprisingly common.

@Saskiaair, you are talking about one name, I am talking of several names.

A name like Rhys, Dylan or Gareth are mainstream enough to not infer a Welsh heritage. Names like Gwynfor will be shortened to Gwyn.
Names like Geraint, Llyr or Ynyr will be tricky outside a Welsh speaking environment.

IME, why not make life simple and use something like Griff? You can always teach your child Welsh for the heritage part.