Gwendoline vs Gwendolyn vs Gwendolen

[delshell]

DH and I are considering one of the above variations for our baby girl (shortened to Gwen) but I'm struggling to get my head around the different spellings and pronunciations.

Gwendoline - I don't like this spelling so it's bottom of my list. There's something about the 'line' ending I don't like, and also reminds me too strongly of Gwendoline Mary Lacey of Malory Towers fame. Just including it here for sake of completion, really!

Gwendolyn - I like this spelling, but is it too American?

Gwendolen - I like this spelling too but I have heard conflicting things about the pronunciation. I know it's the Welsh spelling of the name, and in Welsh is pronounced GwenDOLen. But it also seems to be the classic/traditional English spelling and both Oscar Wilde and George Eliot have characters with that name and spelling (presumably pronounced the English way, GWENdolen).

Although we are from Wales, we are not Welsh speakers and don't live there now, so want to use the English pronunciation. I like the idea of using a more traditional spelling, but is Gwendolen confusing having two different possible pronunciations?

I’d pronounce them slightly differently. Gwendo-leen, Gwendo-lin, Gwendo-len.

With a y

How do you want the name to be pronounced? I would pronounce all the variations you have put differently.

Gwendolen is pronounced Gwen-DOLL-en. En as in hen and pen.

I would pronounce both Gwendoline and Gwendolyn as 'Gwen-duh-Lynne'.

Gwendoline is an anglicised version of Gwendolen, with a different pronunciation.

If you're in a Welsh speaking area of Wales I think Gwendolen will attract the Welsh pronunciation. I'd go with Gwendolyn if you prefer that spelling to Gwendoline.

If you'll be using Gwen day to day then everyone will call her that instead anyway so the full version won't be used that much.

Just call her Gwen. Short and sweet.

If you want a longer name, you could have Gwenda, Gwenith, Gwenno, Gwennol, Gwenhwyfar, Gwenllian, Gwenan, Gwenfair. Gweneira, Gwenaëlle, Guinivere