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Imogen - is it Irish or Welsh?

32 replies

SaltResistantSlug · 24/05/2012 20:34

Have read conflicting info on tinternet and wonder if anyone can say for certain one way our the other...

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LuckyLuckyMe · 24/05/2012 20:38

I don't think it's Irish. It doesn't sound Irish at all.

I like it though wherever it came from Smile

SweetEspresso · 24/05/2012 20:39

It's a Welsh name.

Emphaticmaybe · 24/05/2012 20:39

I don't think it's specifically either. Shakespeare made it up. It was a miss print in one of his plays ,it was originally Innogen to denote innocence I presume, but their was a mix up at the printers- or so I've read.

AThingInYourLife · 24/05/2012 20:39

It's definitely not Irish.

Lunarlyte · 24/05/2012 20:40

It's Welsh - defo

mejon · 24/05/2012 20:57

I keep seeing it listed as Welsh on internet name lists but as a native Welsh speaker it is not one I've ever come across. If it were Welsh the 'g' would be hard like in golf. Emphaticmaybe,s (sorry my apostrophe is playing silly buggers) explanation sounds plausible.

Raahh · 24/05/2012 21:27

I always thought Will made it up, too.

Love it though, it's dd2's middle name.

DogEared · 25/05/2012 14:23

Like mejon I am native Welsh speaker and it isn't Welsh.

Cassettetapeandpencil · 25/05/2012 14:25

This reply has been deleted

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Marisaurus · 25/05/2012 14:29

Neither - a Shakespeare invention. So perhaps from Stratford?

CakeBump · 25/05/2012 14:36

Not Welsh, as others have said.

grammar · 25/05/2012 14:39

William Shakespeare's Cymbeline, methinks it's English.

GoPoldark · 25/05/2012 14:44

Not Welsh at all!!

I thought it was kind of old Englishy/Germanic.

chipmonkey · 25/05/2012 15:35

Not Irish.

Lunarlyte · 25/05/2012 15:46

Let's finish this!

According to the Puffin 'Dictionary of First Names' Imogen is an English name that is a mistaken reading of the Celtic Innogen.

The mistake was made by Shakespere in Cymbeline - the 'nn' was written 'm'.

HTH!

mejon · 25/05/2012 20:35

So your reversing your 'Welsh defo' stance then Lunarlyte?! Wink

QueenElizaBeatHer · 25/05/2012 20:37

emphaticmaybe That's what I've heard too (my mini-beast is called Imogen. Gorgeous name!)

rhetorician · 25/05/2012 20:37

neither, certainly not Irish. But a lovely name, would have used it for dd2, but DP doesn't like it. can have Jen as nn, which I also like

mathanxiety · 25/05/2012 20:46

Innogen was itself a corruption of the 16th century Irish word for daughter, 'inghean' (in modern Irish 'iníon') or so it is alleged.

mathanxiety · 25/05/2012 20:55

Sorry, there wouldn't have been a H in an Irish name until the early 20th century when H was introduced. The spelling would have been approximately ingean (and variations of Ingean). In Irish the G would have had more of a Y sound ('ingyan') but a reader of English would probably have pronounced it as an English G.

rhetorician · 25/05/2012 20:57

didn't realise that math - that's lovely. Wish we'd used it now

fluffysunshine · 07/06/2021 13:34

What about Gwen or Imogen ? I think a Imogen is Welsh.

I also like Nerys as an alternative.

TatianaBis · 07/06/2021 13:45

It’s def Shakespeare and neither Irish nor Welsh.

Love it.

KirstenBlest · 07/06/2021 14:03

If it was welsh, it would be pronounced Im-OGG-en, which it isn't.
As others pp, it's from Shakespeare

LizzieAnt · 07/06/2021 15:37

If Imogen does come from a Shakespearean transcription error - as it is widely thought it might - it is Irish as mathanxiety has said. It was used to mean 'daughter of' in names. Ní is used in modern Irish. For example, Gormflaith ingen Murchada (Gormflaith daughter of Murchad) was the name an Irish queen born in the 10th century.

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