Clara / Gwilym

[ohhmydododah]

Thoughts please... Clara if a girl.
Gwilym if a boy ( this is welsh as we are welsh, but live in London) it's said Gwil-lim, I'm assuming would probably be nicknamed the more common Wil eventually, although not by us.

Clara is lovely, Gwilym is OK. I know an adult Gwilym (I'm in Wales) and he is always Gwil.

My Great Grandad was Gwilym, never shortened, lovely name :-) Both names are lovely op

Love Gwilym - I know one, very cute name.

Clara - not so keen. Sounds a bit 'uppity' to me. I prefer Cara I think.

Gwilym is my family name through 7+ generations.

Several are Will. Several are Phil.

My Taid was ‘goo’ as a nickname.

It’s a good steady name and it won’t go out of trend.

Clara is a nice name and easy for to pronounce

I've never heard or seen Gwilym. On initially trying to work out how to pronounce it, I initally read Golym, then Gwenlyn (thinking it was female). I'm sure once people know how to pronounce it, its fine, but its not a nice sounding name (IMO) and he will forever be spelling it out to people.

The not knowing how to pronounce/ spell Gwilym is a BIG issue, but I'm struggling with boys names English or a welsh or anything else.

Don't saddle him with a name like that. I'm also welsh but some names are just ugly.

Could you not just use William?

Love Gwilym.

Gwilym is a fave of mine and on my list if we have a boy ever. Not seen many people struggle with the spelling or pronunciation either but maybe I’ve just been lucky.

Clara is nice!

@Elouera William is just a bit saturated for me, it's nice enough, but not for me.

The only Gwilym I knew when younger was called Gwil. I like it, I like Clara too.

Is it said Gwil Liam as though to rhyme with William or is is literally Gwil lim. I like both! Never heard it before so curious.

My first boyfriend at Uni was a Gwillim. He told everyone, including me, that he was a William: 'call me Will'. Apparently Gwillim was ok in Wales but made him feel like a garden gnome's name in England.

I think it's a great name, but that was his take on it.

I may have misspelled it, but you get the jist!

Gwillym is my surname, I think it makes a wonderful first name!!

Congratulations xx

Gwilym is great: fits with your heritage, easy to spell and pronounced how you'd expect.

Have you thought about Carys rather than Clara?

Clara - lovely
Gwilym - nice in Wales. I'm not sure it works well in other places though. How about Gareth?

Gwilym is very nice, I had a Welsh friend with a Gwilym and always liked it.

Clara is lovely too.

I like Gwilym (and I don't think it's hard to pronounce) but he would be as likely to get Gwil as Will, if that matters? Are there any Welsh girls names you like? Clara is pretty but feels a bit trendy in comparison to Gwilym imo. Or you could consider similar Lara or Cara (since they are not so part of the retro/vintage name trend like Clara).

I have never heard Gwilym before, but I pronounced in my head as I read it the same way you described it so don't think its hard to pronounce.
It's nice to have a name connected to your heritage that is easy (to me) to pronounce and that you like.
I'm not mad about Clara but there is nothing wrong with the name.
A similar name that I love is Cora.

Good names, and I particularly love Gwylim.

I'm in Australia and know a young Gwylim whose family have no Welsh connections - they just loved the name. He often goes by Gwyl. I'm not aware that spelling or pronunciation is a problem to anyone.

I like Gwilym and also Gwion. My top 3 Welsh boys names are Tomos, Osian and Macsen. I'm also partial to Aneirin and Taliesin.

My favourite Welsh girls names are Alys, Eira, Mari, Morwenna and Tesni.

I get some rude comments on my Welsh name and some truly bizarre spellings* of it and most people initially say it wrong. However, generally people do get it right once told how to say it. I think Gwilym is one which won't always be immediately obvious pronunciation wise but is easy to learn once told how to say it. I expect some people will switch the y and i around when spelling it and he'll get Gwylim a lot.

*I enjoy the bizarre spellings, every time I think I have encountered every possible misspelling someone comes up with a new one

@CaffiSaliMali lovely names. Where I live in London has a large Chinese population and I've met so many baby Osians, so would be an easy pick as would be familiar, although my DB has a similar name.

I like them both.