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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

Thoughts on Taliesin?

113 replies

NCforbabyname · 30/08/2022 20:56

DH has proposed this as a middle name for DS. I'm on the fence as our surname gets a lot of 'how do you spell that?' and is often mispronounced.

DS' first name is in the top 100 (as of 2020) although I've never met someone with his name but it is quite easily spelt and pronounced.

OP posts:

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Marcipex · 01/09/2022 13:01

Taliban?!
I thought Taliesin was a long-ago welsh musician. Or similar.

I do know a Tal and the local accent mangles that into two syllables so that the poor kid is called Towel. In the same way, they say Fower for Four iyswim.

WhenPushComesToShove · 01/09/2022 10:19

Taliban... 😳

caringcarer · 01/09/2022 09:23

I misread and saw talisman at first. Very odd name.

Upontherooftops · 01/09/2022 09:17

It's a lovely name. I'd assume Welsh ancestry if I saw it.

KirstenBlest · 01/09/2022 09:09

@CaptainBarbosa , 22:37

The word for stupid is twp not dwp, dwp is a form of it. Twpsyn twp, Twpsen dwp. Maybe your pal didn't recognise doolally twp

CaptainBarbosa · 01/09/2022 08:46

KirstenBlest · 01/09/2022 07:58

@NCforbabyname , by more pronounced, I mean they tend to say E as 'ai' like in 'air', so it might sound to them like there's a short 'ee' sound. The sound is like ye in yes, not 'ee-airs'.

Does anyone here know what doith means? @KnickerlessParsons , used it on another thread but didn't reply to my question. I'd never seen the word, and given the context, it wasn't a typo of doeth (wise)

In what context was it used?

Could just be a colloquialism for the area they are in.

I say "dwlali twp" which is basically crazy stupid. Or sometimes just "twp" for stupid (but these are friendly not insulting ways) So say mam was making a mess of something like trying to a ice a cake and was all cack-handed about it we'd say "mam! Ti'n dwlali twp ar hyn o bryd"

I said something similar to a friend from Anglesey and they had no idea what I was saying 🤣

Also in Wales the dictionary spelling for stupid is dwp so everyone sniggers at "the DWP" because well they are stupid 🤷🏻‍♀️

KirstenBlest · 01/09/2022 07:58

@NCforbabyname , by more pronounced, I mean they tend to say E as 'ai' like in 'air', so it might sound to them like there's a short 'ee' sound. The sound is like ye in yes, not 'ee-airs'.

KirstenBlest · 01/09/2022 07:50

@NCforbabyname , possibly - the accent in parts of the south is more pronounced. It's more likely to be by the varying degrees of welshness.
I know people who claim to be fluent when they are anything but, some who speak a little, and others who speak Welsh as their day-to-day language.

erikbloodaxe · 01/09/2022 07:33

I'm North Walien and I hear three syllables. It's a very fine difference I think. I can hear when it's pronounced with 4 and feels like the person hasn't quite got their mouth around it.

CaptainBarbosa · 31/08/2022 23:22

Fluent Welsh speaker here from the south.

It's a 3 syllable name from me

Tal-yes-in (tal as in Talc)

I like it, grew up with one in my class.

My favourite all time Welsh Boys name if you want an alternative though is Emrys (it's the Welsh version of Ambrose)

AssumingDirectControl · 31/08/2022 23:14

I absolutely love it too. Like others I first heard it on Child Of Our Time and I’ve also just realised these are all adults now and I feel very old.

Fivebeanchilli · 31/08/2022 23:05

I love love love it.
I wish I'd used it as a nn for my DS (he had a different Welsh name instead but Taliesin is much nicer).

Original poster

NCforbabyname · 31/08/2022 21:09

Could the discrepancy with pronunciation be due to different prounciation dependent on where you're from, north or south Wales?

OP posts:

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 31/08/2022 21:08

That's my cat's name

erikbloodaxe · 31/08/2022 21:04

@UseOfWeapons or even Pagan AND Welsh.....like me

tsmainsqueeze · 31/08/2022 19:59

I really like it.

KirstenBlest · 31/08/2022 19:53

I've just seen something online that said that Cariad was pronounced Car-EE-ad. Iesu Grist, I've seen it all now. It's CARR-yad. dons tin hat to be told that I and every Welsh speaker is wrong

KirstenBlest · 31/08/2022 19:32

It is 3 syllables.
Struggling to think of names with IE in but Iesu is Yessy (the last Y is not really a ee sound but the U sound doesn't have an equivalent)

Iesu is 2 syllables. Iestyn is two syllables.
Urien is two syllables (IRR-yen - IRR like in irrigate)

If you said the i and the e separately, Urien would be said as Irr-EE-en, and it isn't.

Similarly, Marian is MARR-yan not Marry-Ann. The stress always falls on the penultimate spelling, and it would give you MarEE-ann.

Ship · 31/08/2022 17:45

I’m welsh. I say tally- ess- in

Original poster

NCforbabyname · 31/08/2022 17:37

DH has the Welsh connection but tells me it's pronounced Tally-ESS-in. We do not live in Wales though.

I do like it. However, the more I read it, the more I mispronounce it and then I forget how it should be spelt in the first place.

Has anyone got any good alternatives?

OP posts:

itrytomakemyway · 31/08/2022 17:13

This is really interesting. I have had all four Welsh speakers in the house say the name to me. They say they hear 3 syllables - I still hear 4. That double vowel sound Tal IE ssin is very, very quick.

I am the non Welsh speaker so I accept it is three but sounds like 4 to my monoglot ears.

BobbysGirly · 31/08/2022 16:59

I’m finding it difficult to phonetically spell Taliesin. Sometimes I get 3 syllables and sometimes 4.

My grandad’s name was Tom. I found out, when the family got together to speak with the minister just before his funeral, that his name was actually Taliesin. I wish I had known. My first son would have been given Taliesin as his middle name, instead of Thomas 🫣

The dog is called Tal though 🐶

KirstenBlest · 31/08/2022 14:37

Well blow me. The name and the Welsh language have been around for 15 centuries and they've all been saying it incorrectly.
Typical MN

Lurkerlot · 31/08/2022 14:34

Tal- ee-Essen. In my my part of Wales too.

KirstenBlest · 31/08/2022 14:27

It's definitely not tal-ee-ess-in in Welsh.
I think you'll find that Canolfan Gelfyddydau Taliesin is pronounced Can-OL-Van Gel-Futh-UDD-eye Tal-YES-in. (th like in this and that)

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