Definitely want a welsh name, any thoughts on shortlist?

[nightandthelight]

Girls:

Aneira
Arianwen
Ceridwen
Enfys (too much like envy?)
Nesta
Tagwen

Boys:

Aneirin
Bleddyn
Emrys (has this been ruined by BBCs Merlin?)
Heddwyn
Maredudd
Seth

I'd go for Arianwen and Aneirin - I know a lovely boy nn NYE. I love Arianwen, always have but am not welsh!

If you're Angharad you may all have A names which puts some people off.

I know an Eleri but it's mostly pronounced like celery which bothers her parents so may be annoying if you move.

I love Gruffydd/Gruff, I really like Macsen for a boy.

I love Gwenan, Deryn and Elin for a girl. I love Carys but it's really popular.

Heledd, Aderyn and Taliesin are lovely. I love Idris too even if it reminds me of Idris from Satellite City. Though he was lovely too.

Cari,
Mali,
Talfryn,
Iestyn,
Teifion,

My favourite is Arianwen, but I'm biased as that's my DD's name! Love Ceridwen as well, and Aneira. I was going to suggest Eirlys but see someone has beaten me to it! But you're the right time of year for it.

Boys, I love Emrys also Taliesin or Idris as suggsted by a PP (unless Idris Elba has made it too popular?)

Come back and let us know what you choose!

I have an Emrys. Think that it is a great name.
Hate Enfys, had a Great Aunt Enfys. I have never met anyone with a nice word to say about her. She was a complete bitch!

I'm a Sian I hated it when I was younger as no one could say it, but very different now as more popular so people do know how to say it.

My Dad is welsh and I'm pregnant with my first and I like the idea of a welsh name for my first child. Carys is on my list, love it!

Sorry for being awol! Was travelling back from Spain yesterday with a DH with food poisoning. What a lovely journey that was!

Thank you so much for all your suggestions, so much to discuss with DH! Will be sure to come back and update though it may be some time from now :)

I like Siriol. Or Saran. For a girl. Quite easy to pronounce.

Sioned is nice too, if people can pronounce it properly.

Some friends have a little boy called Llewelyn. Even his parents can't pronounce it! He gets called "Loo"....

I am another non-Welsh person who loves Welsh names. I grew up on the borders with Wales so had a lot of Welsh-named school friends. Names I love: Bethan (I have one of these - she has no Welsh heritage - oops!), Eleri, Catrin, Ceryn, Rhiannon, Arianwen, Gruff (I agonised about whether we could get away with this for a boy in England). Some of these might be too common in Wales though?

Our DS3 is named Ianto, so I'll throw that on the pile! We're from North East England but moved to Cardiff several years ago, always wanted a Welsh name for one of our kids as I'm Welsh.

I really like Emrys for a boy, from your list along with Idris, Ianto, Ieuan and Gareth.

Nesta is interesting but very pretty. Another vote for Eleri here too
I had a great aunt Eira which I thought was a lovely name, it means snow I believe.

I'm so jealous of your list-but even more jealous of your own name,Angharad is my all time number one girl's name!

I love the name Emrys and would love to name a DS that, but I'm not Welsh so think I couldn't get away with it.

Arianwen is gorgeous! I've always loved Seren for a girl too.

Boys names leave me blank but I do find Aneurin reminds me of something in the brain? Sorry OP!

If I was choosing names again I would think about using Gwenllian (not a name I'd heard of before researching DH's family tree) and can be shortened to Gwen.

How about Caled for a boy? One of DH's cousins sons is called this.

We have a Bethan and Morgan, but live in England so whilst wanting Welsh names also needed them to be fairly straightforward to spell and pronounce!

No one has mentioned Mabli yet - I believe it's a Welsh form of Mabel? i used to know a very cute little one, but it seems to go with the current granny names fashion as well as welsh

These are my favourites from your list.

Aneira
Arianwen
Ceridwen
Emrys

I love Ceridwen and Eleri, they're both on my imaginary list. Same goes for Eira (but it wouldn't work with our last name). Iestyn, Lloyd, Cariad.

DH is Welsh and jokes that he's going to go to secretly register future children as either Blodwny-Myfanwy or Gatch Boy Bach! (Boy Bach isn't a namename, it means small boy in Welsh!)

Lots of these names fit the 'granny' fashion for me. Lots of great aunts and uncles etc with some of these names. It's lovely to see them coming back.

They're all lovely names. I knew a lovely lady called Eirlys. I didn't know it meant snowdrop, which makes it even nicer . I've only heard it pronounced by English speakers though so would be nice to hear it said by someone Welsh! I'll have to google.
I've always like Aneurin too

TheCow: I'd pronounce Eirlys as EYE-rrrrliss with the accent on 'eye'.

I once met a very clever woman called Eluned. Said with a Welsh accent - approx Eh-LINN-et (apologies if this is wrong, I am not Welsh) - it sounded rather pretty. Reminded me of little linnet birds.

But agree with other posters that Arianwen and Emrys are great names.

I'm Welsh (first language, work in a Welsh school, doing my degree in Welsh) and Eirlys doesn't sound anything like Eye-rliss the way I say it- at all!! It's very hard to explain in English but it's
More like "eh-r-liss." It's a bit like Aneurin though, in that when you say it as a Welsh speaker it doesn't have a nye sound in it at all- it's An-eh-rin" (though I know Nye is an accepted nickname for it!)

I agree with CeriBerry. In Welsh we sound each letter, and as Welsh is phonetic you need to have a grasp of the Welsh alphabet and its sounds to pronounce names properly unless they are very obvious ones like Gwen.
www.wales.com/Media/ViewImage.aspx?FilePath=2009_20140818171524_e_@@_welshscrabbletiles.jpg&FileType=5
For instance, as you can see above, in Welsh "Rh" is a letter. It isn't the same as R , but Rhodri will be sounded Rodry by English people. It is hard to describe certain sounds in words, you really need to hear it and be familiar with the sound. If you are living in England it is better IMO to go for a name that will be pronounced properly by Welsh and English speakers alike, rather than a name that only Welsh speakers will ever get right.

ceri I get what you mean. I'm from the SE of Wales and say eye-rrrliss. But my friends (West Walian) and dd say it more like the way you do. The "eye" bit is pronounced more like ey or ay even (hard to write it down).

I noticed (on Singer of the World the other day) that Elin (M.Thomas) was pronounced almost like AIR-Lin (which is presumably how Elin herself pronounces it) and Petroc (Trelawny, presenter) had quite a lot of trouble with it.

I agree too with SirVix: if I were the Op I'd stick with straightforward names that don't involve "Rh", "ll" and other letters that don't occur in English.

Great tips on pronounciation ladies! I am west walian but living in SE Wales and I really struggled with pronounciatiom when we first moved here. Am starting to lean more towards the easy to pronounce names although DH is set on Ceridwen but I don't think that's too bad as it doesn't have any of the tricky sounds :)