Boys names you could say in Welsh and English

[BR31]

Hi 👋

Does anyone have any suggestions on boy names that you could say in Welsh and English with a possibility of spelling in Welsh?

We currently have a Wiliam and really struggling to agree on any names 🙈

Thank you 🥰

@Keepingthingsinteresting , Tudor is an anglicisation of Tudur, so not really welsh, just welsh-origin.
No idea where you got Gryf from - I think you meant Griff/Gruff.

Jac (OK no J in Welsh, but it's popular)

Not Geraint, or you'll find he gets called Jer-aint, Gurrunt, Gerrant, Grant....

Nothing with tricky vowel combinations like eu, ae, ei, ew, uw, etc.
Nothing ending in yr, ir
Nothing with a ll or ch in, and be cautious with dd.

Aneirin
Alwyn

@AdaColeman , Alwyn is not welsh, it's of english origin, as is Elwyn, but both are used in Wales. Both a bit 'grandad-name'.

Don't think you can go wrong with Aled. Very difficult to pronounce it any other way? Not Huw - it will be pronounced Hugh which is not the same at all.

How about an anglicised Welsh name (Lloyd, Tudor, Vaughan, Owen...) or a name like Robin or Tomos, or a biblical names like Jacob, Abel, Elias, Gabriel, Joseff...

Ithel
Ifor

Medwyn
Bleddyn
Euros
Aeron
Llion
Morgan
Cai
Emrys

Emlyn and Emyr are some of my favourite names

Nudd
Gwyndion
Arawn
Madog

Gwyndion looks like a typo of Gwydion.
Gwion
Guto
Myrddin
Iolo

Wow thank you everyone for your suggestions, didn't expect so much :) I've spotted a few that I like so will suggest them to my husband

Owen
Idris
Owain
Emlyn

Tomos (although I suspect most people in England would just pronounce it as Thomas, rather than Tomos)

Owen is probably the simplest option and goes very well with William.

Harri also works (Welsh for Henry) but you might not want to use with William!

Welsh person here asking as Im confused. you say Rhys by English people is pronounced Reece, how else do you pronounce it??? Every Rhys I know, and I know lots, pronounce it ree-ce

Ceri would not work in England either.

I went to school in England but close to the border and there were several boys called Ceri. Everyone just said it like Kerry, including the boys themselves. Was everyone saying it wrong then?

@Beachs , do you speak Welsh? I'd guess not from your post.
Rhys is a very popular name, and does not sound like Reece (although it does if you don't speak Welsh).

RH does not sound like R. Y doesn't sound like EE. The S sounds like S.
Rh and Y don't have equivalent english sounds.

@VitaminX , it doesn't work outside Wales because Ceri looks like Serry or Surrey if you read it without knowing that C sounds like K in Welsh.

You havent really answered the question, How exactly are you pronouncing Rhys then? Regardless of whether I'm a Welsh speaker or not, every Rhys I know and have ever known pronounces it Ree-ce?

The Welsh Rh is more rolled than an English R sound and has a very slight kind of h sound in it that makes it a bit like the Scottish ch. I think if you don't speak Welsh (I don't BTW) you might assume that Rh is how Welsh people pronounce all R sounds but it's not. Think about a Welsh accented "Rhodri" vs "roundabout"

I can't hear the difference between y and ee so can't help there.

@Beachs , they have no direct equivalents for me to write.
RH is one letter, and is like saying R and H at the same time.
The Y sounds like Û, but if you don't speak Welsh, you won't know what I mean.
A bit like your tongue makes a horseshoe-shape and you say 'ee' through it.
If it was Reece it would be written Rîs.

I asked whether you spoke Welsh, because i don't know if they say Reece, or if they say Rhys but you hear Reece.

@BertieBotts , RH sounds nothing like the CH in scottish loch.

A better comparison might be with how a scottish person called Whyte says his/her name, and how it doesn't sound just like Wight.

Yes, that is a better way to describe it. It doesn't sound like ch but it modifies the r sound in sort of the same way the c sound is modified in ch. In my head anyway. The problem with pronunciation is it's a bit subjective, as you say, somebody might say Rhys but an English speaker might hear Reece.

@BertieBotts , but CH, RH, TH, PH, NG, DD, FF, and LL are letters in Welsh, not combinations of two letters.
I've seen some threads where a poster said that LL sounded like the scottish ch, and it really does not. it doesn't sound like CL or THL either.
Llio does not sound like Cleo, regardless of Corrie. Welsh names ending in O do not rhyme with go and know. The sound is like the O in got or knot.

If he's called Arthur, Welsh people will think he has a Welsh name and English people will think he has an English name. Maybe it's a bit of an old man's name in English though.

We Welsh speakers definitely see them as Welsh names (even if they're not really, which is news to me).

There's no connection with 'ch', forget about that.
Rh is pronounced as written i.e. not like just 'r' but the r and the h together making one sound.
The 'y' in north Wales will be pronounced differently from 'ee' in English.

www.google.com/search?q=youtube+pronounce+name+rhys&oq=youtube+pronounce+name+rhys&aqs=edge..69i57j0i546l5j69i64.5268j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b99154,vid:ROZ0HG7BF-M

In an ideal world people would be willing to look up phonetic symbols because you can't really explain how something is pronounced in one language using another language.