Welsh names any suggestions.

[Goodmornfelds]

My husband and I are Welsh (South Wales) and live in the east of England.

We are keen to use Welsh names...we are not concerned about making a Welsh name anglicised.
What are your favourite girl/boy names? I need a bit of inspiration.

Thank you all x

Thanks @SoupDragon. That's exactly it.

I have 2 Welsh girls.

Celyn and Carys.

Esyllt is my favourite Welsh girls name, but I would avoid this in England due to the Ll.

I'm half Welsh, half English. My Welsh name has been mentioned on here and is usually pronounced wrong (I live in England). It doesn't bother me much, but it does bother my mother, who is a native Welsh speaker (Anglesey) as most of my friends and teachers got it wrong.

For what it's worth I love my name, and I'm glad I have a name which reflects my Welsh heritage. I often get compliments on it, and it's a good ice breaker as people usually say 'oh that's pretty and/or unusual' at which point I can say 'thanks, it's Welsh for X' and that starts a conversation about Welsh origins and family.

As Mike and others have said, you do need to bear in mind whether names will sound rude etc. in other languages. My mother didn't with me and also had Myfanwy (muh-VAN-wee) on her list, which looks quite different to the English eye. Her boys name for me would have been Ynyr, which I struggle to pronounce. My English family can pronounce my name, but I don't think they would have managed Ynyr as well.

Names on my (currently hypothetical) list are:

Alys (Alice)
Eira (EY-ra - ey as in hey and ra as in rabbit)
Aneira (so she could be Anni for short)
Nia (worked with one and it was generally pronounced correctly)
Morwenna (Saint Morwenna was born in Wales, but did her saintly stuff in Cornwall)
Eirys (EY-riss)
Eirlys (EYR-liss)
Enfys (EN-viss)
Eleri (rhymes with Terry)
Tesni (TESS-nee - means warmth from the sun, and she could be Tess or Tessa for short)
Mari (marry, Welsh for Mary)

Aled (easy to say, well known)
Alun (Al-in)
Aneirin/Aneurin (a-NEIGH-rin)
Osian (OSH-an (an as in Anne, not 'un'))
Tomos (TO-moss, both Os pronounced like the O in 'moss'. I would shorten to Twm at home, but he could be Tom if he wanted at school)
Taliesin (Tally-ESS-in)

I think my favourites are Alys, Eira, Morwenna and Tesni for girls and Osian and Tomos for boys.

Pob lwc!

Rhiannon
Seren
Sian ( Shaan) - don't know how to do the thingy over the a.
Gareth, gethin, geraint.
Iolo, Ianto.
My DC have Welsh names, grown up in England, and while there used to be a lot of explaining to do, welsh names have more visibility these days, and it's a lot easier. The above names I think fit your situation.

I have a Ffion. We also live in the east of England and her name is very rarely mispronounced! 😊

Sorry @Goodmornfelds I seem to have detailed your thread by challenging the stereotype that Welsh names are hard to pronounce.

I hope you find the perfect name

Why should Welsh people have to chose a Welsh name carefully, just because some other people chose not to pronounce a name properly or think it's funny to mispronounce?

Because OP lives in England and English people don’t speak Welsh. People still make mistakes pronouncing welsh names even when doing their best to pronounce them properly.

@CaffiSaliMali (love the username btw) you’ve mentioned my daughters name in your hypotheticals, it’s a first I think!
My children are half welsh/half English and we did consider pronunciation issues with their dads family, but they managed pretty well, and as I said my oldest daughter (Hâf) and my son (Ioan) are in uni in England and mostly people cope better than you’d think once they’ve had it explained to them.

Rhys and Huw are ok if you don't mind Rees and Hugh.

Esyllt (agree that it's lovely) will be Esilt or ' How the f**k do I say that?' or something.

Though, @CaffiSaliMali I would say Taliesin isn’t TALLY-es-in, tal-YES-in. No ‘ee’ sound and only 3 syllables.

I have a Nye. Very Welsh, difficult to mis-pronounce. Winner!

I am welsh, Anglesey & living in England.

I chose Macsen for a boy... I also liked Elain xx

Mari (Welsh for Mary).

Gwilym is nice, and popular, but will get misspelt as Gwylim.

Taliesin is Tal-YESS-in.

Ynyr will be called In-eer but it is UN-irr

A name I like is Hywel but I don't like hearing it said as Hewel.

Some of the welsh surnames work well - Lloyd, Owen, Vaughan, Brice, Pierce, Morgan.

I love Cariad, would have used that if I had a girl.

@DotBall and @somewhereovertherainbow2 My son is Macsen Nye!
@Justjoinedforthis I don’t mind Cariad, but I hate how Cariad Lloyd mispronounces it. It’s Carr-yad as opposed to Car-ee-ad. In welsh an i before another vowel makes a ‘yuh’ sound so Ioan is Yo-an. Or Iolo is Yo-lo.

I love Non for a girl.

Wynn.

I saw this suggestion on another post and thought it was lovely.

Wyn tends to have only one n, but Wynn is a surname. It was probably my suggestion.

It works because it isn't difficult to say or spell, and it sounds like Win.

It was very popular as a middle name for boys and girls in the 1950s and 60s.

Cadi
Eleri
Gwenno
Menna
Nesta
Siwan

Meleri (Meh-LEH-ree)
Betsan

for a girl,

Macsen (mack-sen)
Bleddyn (bleh-thin, the th like in "these", not like in "thistle)

for a boy

And yes, consider how things can be mangled , I wish I had since none of my expert's teachers or classmates have ever pronounced his name properly

Eldest, not expert!!!

Meleri rhymes with Terry.
It sounds different if you have a south wales accent but it really isn't Mel Airy.

We're from S Wales too and live in SE England. My three have very welsh names (all are included in the suggestions) and all can be shortened.

No one has had any challenges with pronunciations of the shortened names. I've only anecdotally heard of one child who has same name as one of mine, but equally because there is so much variety in baby names these days they don't stand out unusually.

The only one I would avoid is 'Dylan' but that's only because I couldn't cope with it being pronounced as 'Dillon'.

Mabli and Griff are my favourite welsh names. (I’m also Welsh living in England)