Thoughts on Taliesin?

[NCforbabyname]

DH has proposed this as a middle name for DS. I'm on the fence as our surname gets a lot of 'how do you spell that?' and is often mispronounced.

DS' first name is in the top 100 (as of 2020) although I've never met someone with his name but it is quite easily spelt and pronounced.

Could the discrepancy with pronunciation be due to different prounciation dependent on where you're from, north or south Wales?

I love love love it.
I wish I'd used it as a nn for my DS (he had a different Welsh name instead but Taliesin is much nicer).

I absolutely love it too. Like others I first heard it on Child Of Our Time and I’ve also just realised these are all adults now and I feel very old.

Fluent Welsh speaker here from the south.

It's a 3 syllable name from me

Tal-yes-in (tal as in Talc)

I like it, grew up with one in my class.

My favourite all time Welsh Boys name if you want an alternative though is Emrys (it's the Welsh version of Ambrose)

I'm North Walien and I hear three syllables. It's a very fine difference I think. I can hear when it's pronounced with 4 and feels like the person hasn't quite got their mouth around it.

@NCforbabyname , possibly - the accent in parts of the south is more pronounced. It's more likely to be by the varying degrees of welshness.
I know people who claim to be fluent when they are anything but, some who speak a little, and others who speak Welsh as their day-to-day language.

@NCforbabyname , by more pronounced, I mean they tend to say E as 'ai' like in 'air', so it might sound to them like there's a short 'ee' sound. The sound is like ye in yes, not 'ee-airs'.

Does anyone here know what doith means? @KnickerlessParsons , used it on another thread but didn't reply to my question. I'd never seen the word, and given the context, it wasn't a typo of doeth (wise)

In what context was it used?

Could just be a colloquialism for the area they are in.

I say "dwlali twp" which is basically crazy stupid. Or sometimes just "twp" for stupid (but these are friendly not insulting ways) So say mam was making a mess of something like trying to a ice a cake and was all cack-handed about it we'd say "mam! Ti'n dwlali twp ar hyn o bryd"

I said something similar to a friend from Anglesey and they had no idea what I was saying 🤣

Also in Wales the dictionary spelling for stupid is dwp so everyone sniggers at "the DWP" because well they are stupid 🤷🏻‍♀️

@CaptainBarbosa , 22:37

The word for stupid is twp not dwp, dwp is a form of it. Twpsyn twp, Twpsen dwp. Maybe your pal didn't recognise doolally twp

It's a lovely name. I'd assume Welsh ancestry if I saw it.

I misread and saw talisman at first. Very odd name.

Taliban... 😳

Taliban?!
I thought Taliesin was a long-ago welsh musician. Or similar.

I do know a Tal and the local accent mangles that into two syllables so that the poor kid is called Towel. In the same way, they say Fower for Four iyswim.

He was a 6th century poet @Marcipex .

I hear the Fower for Four sometimes where I live. I think Towel is pronounced Tahl around here

I really like it, great history and meaning, "radiant brow". Is there a Welsh connection?

I have a Taliesin (Tal/Tali for short). Tal-YES-in is the closest I can get to how we pronounce it, but it doesn’t annoy me of people say Tal-ee-ESS-un. It most certainly isn’t Tal-eye-uh-sin like on Child of our Time.

We’ve had no issues with pronunciation (born in England but subsequently we’ve moved back to Wales) but do generally have to spell it out.

Thank you for sharing this!

1. My DH is probably saying it wrong which means he would be our child's whole life as he swears it's not Tal-YES-in as that's 'wrong'.

2. I don't want my son having to spell another name out. We live in England and I don't want to make it any more difficult.

My firstborn has a name that isn't heard that often and has to spell it/repeat it a lot, DH thinks it would be wrong for our first to have to do this and give our newborn a simple, easy full name

Does your DS have a Welsh name?

I wouldn't pick something overly different in style e.g. Llŷr-Siôr and Oliver. Oliver may feel he got a less interesting name without reflecting his heritage or Llŷr-Siôr may feel you regretted his name and so went the opposite way with his little brother.

Whereas Harri and Oliver wouldn't be as noticable.

Children's names don't have to match as such but I would avoid names that clash.

It's lovely, I really like it. If it's a middle name I wouldn't worry too much about people spelling it.

I love it. I am Welsh, with a Welsh name, but now live in England. I am forever spelling my (short and very common in wales) name out and people more often than not get the pronunciation wrong. I do correct them, but they continue to do it and there’s only so many times that I feel I can correct them without feeling embarrassed. Also, I never shorten my name, but many people (ILs, I’m looking at you) shorten my name to make the pronunciation easier for them. Again, there’s only so many times that I can correct without feeling embarrassed, so I have to put up with my shortened name because people can’t/won’t say my full name properly.

This is why I didn’t choose Welsh names that seemed east to me to pronounce. I didn’t want my Dc to have the issues I’ve had!

So, much as I absolutely love love love Taliesin, i wouldn’t use it.

This is it really, especially us living in England.

Both my maiden name and DH's surname are tricky for people to get their heads around. It was and still is my pet peeve as they're not difficult if people actually look at the spelling,

DD (who has no Welsh names) but due to her uncommon name is very good at correcting people on pronunciation and not calling her a nickname.

I think a lot of it is down to confidence. I would love to have the confidence to be able to say, each and every time someone doesn’t pronounce my name properly, what the correct pronunciation is. Not rudely, just politely, it so that they do eventually get it right. I think sometimes children find this easier than adults!

But I don’t have that confidence. And I don’t find that people always take kindly to being corrected, however politely!

it's a middle name, so won't be used much.

And I don’t find that people always take kindly to being corrected, however politely!
I agree. You get rolled eyes, and a mock pronumciation of the name (e.g. 'Ew Shiv-AUN!' when you've pointed out that it isn't Shivonne/Shobun/Si-o-ban)

My fantasy twin boys are named Taliesin and Macsen. 😂

I love it.

Sadly the lovely lad who appeared in A Child of Our Time committed suicide.
I love the name and remember him when I hear it.