Imogen - is it Irish or Welsh?

[SaltResistantSlug]

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

@mathanxiety

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.

That's interesting. My dd's friend is Imogen. It's a lovely name.

I’ve never bought the transcription error line. It’s more likely IMO that Shakespeare took an existing name and changed it how he fancied.

Yes, it could have been on purpose, but a misspelling in any case (if the theory's correct).

Intentional adaptation is not a mis-spelling.

Hmm, I'm not sure about that really. Not a mistake, certainly, but if I decided to adapt the name Hannah to Hamah, for example, I would be (deliberately) misspelling and mispronouncing the original name.

It's all conjecture, anyway, as far as Imogen goes, as the origins of the name aren't certain afaik. A quick google turns up an 11th century Imogen in Brittany too.

That’s because we live in an age of literacy, mass printing and established spellings which was not the case in Shakespeare’s time.

Altho, Hannah is also spelt Channah from the Hebrew, Hanna, Hanni etc.

I wanted to use Imogen for dd. DH said it was 'too welsh' which I took exception to but it turns out it made him think of Imogsn from Big Brother, who was Welsh.

I liked the idea of Mog as a nickname!

I then read the Shakespeare transcription theory and quite liked Innogen as a name but when I mentioned it to a colleague they pointed out it sounded like an electricity supplier...

I still think Imogen is a lovely name!