Welsh name in England?

[floravus]

I am Welsh, DH is English and we live in England. We are having a boy and like the name Gruffudd (pronounced Griffith) but I'm worried it will be too hard work for DS growing up in England. We did think about Griffin which isn't technically Welsh but along similar lines, but then we thought we should either go full Welsh or just find an English name.

Thoughts?

Oh yes Gethin . Lovely name.

I do think it is a lovely classic name OP, nice on both a small boy and adult.
All the ones I know are nice, which helps.. !
Do you have any other options ?

Go for it! As long as you don't mind having to correct people they'll all learn eventually. Exotic names all around!

Gwilym is popular in Wales. Fairly easy but will get spelt wrongly as Gwylim . It's pronounced Gwillim.

I think Griffin is nice.

I'd crack on, if I were you, OP!
I'm 37w and if we have a girl, DH and I are going to go with Gwynedd.

As PP have said: people will learn to say it!

There aren't any other Welsh names we like, but a fair few English ones! I do like Gwilym with the shortening of Wil but I think that is no less complicated than Gruffudd and I prefer that one.

AnExParrot Gwynedd is a boy's name.

I know a Gwilym/Wil .Yes, v nice name.

Go with Gruffudd OP. Ioan Gruffudd gets on OK with the name his good looks probably help
I would shorten it to Griff not Gruff though to avoid Gruffalo type jokes. I know several Griffs and Gruffs.

The more I think about it, the more I like Gwilym/Wil. Gruffudd and Gwilym are the top two names at the moment, definitely leaning more towards Welsh than English now.

I think Gruffudd would be okay I'm England. Ok, people will likely pronounce it incorrectly initially, but once they're told the correct pronunciation it's easy enough - there aren't any sounds that aren't in the English language. Also Griff is a great nickname and can't possibly be mispronounced.

Having said that, I knew a Dewi in uni and no one could pronounce his name. It was bizarre.

I think go for a welsh name. However, I am really Struggling with how the ‘th’ in that and this are different, so I would probably pronounce Gruffudd incorrectly, but Griff is a great nickname for us poor pronouncers to use!

pronounced as english people would say “this”, not “thin”

I can't even tell the difference! The 'th' sounds exactly the same in both words, it's just the next vowel that sounds different

My grandma chose Gareth for her son, she was born in Wales and grew up there mostly, moved to England mid teens I believe.

AnExParrot Gwynedd is a boy's name

It may well be one of those names for male or female but I'm Welsh now living in England. In all my years growing up in Wales I only ever heard it as a girls name.

The 'th' in thin is lighter and more aspirated, the 'th' in this is heavier and uses the tongue between the teeth to create a bit of a resonant buzzing noise.

I'm a Welsh learner, not a native speaker, but I can hear the difference quite clearly. Try saying just the 'th' in each word, but saying it as though it will be 'thin' or 'this'.

The difference (in Welsh) between 'ei' and 'eu' on the other hand, will remain forever beyond me!

OP, go for it. I prefer Gruffudd to Gwilym myself, but both of them put together are going to be a million times easier for non-Welsh tongues than names like Rhys or Emyr!!

The girl's name is Gwyneth.

For those of you who can't hear the difference between th in this and th in thing, can you hear the difference between vie and fie?

I know two 3 year old Griffiths In England - one is spelt welsh way though. Bizarrely they go to the same nursery in a small village!

I have also named my son a very welsh name and I am in English and live in England. Has a short easy to say abbreviation though. Not sure people realise it’s welsh and they tend to look at me like I’m a hippy! Lol!!
Just go with whatever you like the most / people will learn if they care about him!

Oh deffo go with the Welsh ! I'm going to choose a Irish names for my future dcs - Irish spelling - both myself and dh Irish - plan to stay in the UK!

My name is also Irish and I actually quite like that people struggle with it and it's always been a nice way to always remember and be proud of where I am from - and it's a good conversation starter too (people always ask how to pronounce it etc!) I think especially if your away from Wales it's important to have something to give your child that's from your roots !! Plus it's amazing name !

garden that's a really good point. DS has a very English name and our surname is also very English, so I feel like all my Welsh heritage is dying out. This would be a lovely way to bring it back in. Also when researching the Gruffudd/Gruffydd spellings I came across the only King of Wales (Gruffydd ap Llewellyn) which could also work quite well as DS has the name of an English King (not that that's the reason we chose it!)

The 'th' in thin is lighter and more aspirated, the 'th' in this is heavier and uses the tongue between the teeth to create a bit of a resonant buzzing noise. I'm a Welsh learner, not a native speaker, but I can hear the difference quite clearly. Try saying just the 'th' in each word, but saying it as though it will be 'thin' or 'this'.

The difference between the two sounds that are written "th" is found in English too--they are separate phonemes! One is a voiced consonant, the other is unvoiced. SleepyHiraeth, can you really not hear the difference?

The tongue is in the same position in both cases, I am pretty sure--the difference is whether the sound is voiced or not. Try placing your finger on your windpipe instead.

I have a Dwynwen in England as of a year ago, it's the second part of her name so no one has to bother saying it, it's just me who uses it.

Was interesting at first, then downright boring and annoying, teaching my English family to pronounce it. I had wanted her first name to be something like Angharad, Myfanwy, or Ffion but everything was vetoed in place of an English name.

I like the Gryffudd spelling, I knew a few with that spelling.

You will struggle to teach anyone to say Dwynwen properly unless they speak welsh.
Myfanwy would be pronounced Miff-anway or Miff-amway (it is Muv-ANN-wy, with the wy bit like the wi in with). Angharad would be Ann Garrud (yuk) and Ffion would probably be ok.

MikeUniformMike I worked with an Emyr, who every time I tried to pronounce his name said 'I'm not an Arab sheik!' He couldn't pronounce my name though so at least we were equally crap!

In my accent there's no difference between Allan and Ellen, so the finer points of Welsh vowel differentiation are well beyond me!!

Emyr isn't that difficult.
The Em is like the Em in Emma. The yr is is like the ir in irrelevant
EM-irr.
Imagine Eminem if it was Emirem, without the last em.