Welsh Baby Names Living in London

[QuintillaTortilla]

So DH is Welsh, and I'm technically English (lived overseas for 80% of my life). We live in London now.

He wants to name our little girl a Welsh name, so far he has:
Lleucu
Esyllt
Heledd-Flur
Goleuddydd

@YnysMonCrone , Bronwyn is awful. The -wyn ending is masculine. Bronwen is nice.

@salamithumbs , Rowena isn't welsh but is possibly derived from Welsh

@Hottoffeesauce , Arianwen seems a bit made up, and will get said as Arry Anwen when it's Arr-YAN-wen

@SemperIdem , I can assure you that London's "inhabitants will manage just fine with Welsh names." is not true. They'll cope just fine with some Welsh names.

Hard to pronounce Welsh names are not any more Welsh than easier to pronounce Welsh names.

Goleuddydd was an endlessly tragic character from the Mabinogion. Since it is otherwise hardly ever used as a name in Wales, it is difficult to escape that association.

I agree with the comments above that there’s nothing wrong in choosing a a Welsh name, but choose one more ‘less Welsh’, if that makes sense.ie. One more easily pronounceable/spelling in English.

Suggestions
Anghared
Elleri
Carys
Eluned
Rhiannon
Ffion
Anwena

@Riverlee , you have misspelt Angharad and Eleri, and I've not seen or heard Anwena before but I know a few women called Alwenna.

@Phphion , I'd forgotten the name from the Mabinogi. Thanks for the reminder. Definitely tragic.

Anything but Blod!!!

Seren is beautiful as is Carys.
I think of serenity and a soft caress when I hear those names.
I also like Elin.
How do you pronounce:
Lleucu
Goleuddydd
Esyllt ?

we have a Welsh girl’s name in London but those ones are a bit far out…

I’m Welsh but those are a bit challenging for me, some of them were the jokey names my mum suggested when we had our DDs. Esyllt is pretty, but ll is a challenge, she’s more likely to be spat over than have it pronounced properly!

I loved Betsan but DH said it sounded like a toilet cleaner, I had so many Sians, Siwans and Catrins at school that I didn’t want those, so we chose a couple of the easy to pronounce names that are on many, many of the lists.

How do you pronounce:
Lleucu
Goleuddydd
Esyllt?

I have no idea how to write Lleucu and Esyllt phonetically but it's
Ll-eye-key and Ess-i-ll-t

Goleuddydd is Gol-eye-th-I-th where the th is hard like in the or that

@LadyEloise1 , How to pronounce Esyllt in Welsh | HowToPronounce.com
How to pronounce Goleuddydd in Welsh | HowToPronounce.com
How to pronounce Lleucu in Welsh | HowToPronounce.com

I know Welsh girls living in England called Anwen, Nia, Elin, Gwen abd Cerys. To me these names are a lot easier for non-Welsh speakers and I think would make your girl's life easier too!

I’m Welsh, living in London, and Catrin was my first choice of welsh girls name. We had boys so didn’t get to use it. But it would be my number one choice.

That's what I thought!

Go with Nia, Bronwen, Gwen or Ffion.

Do more research and come up with some names that you like the sound of and are Welsh. It is sweet to have a meaningful name. Ask for a list of the names of your husband's forebears and cousins.

Eluned or Ceinwen are lovely Welsh girls' names.

I can't see either working in London. They seem like an old woman's name to me.

This. My north London NCT group had Polish, German, French, Irish, west African, and Brazilian names.

@JoyLuck , they may well do, but names with sounds not in standard English tend to get mispronounced and misspelt. Would you know without asking how to say Andrzej, Piotr, Caoimhe, Jabier, Joao or Teuntje? Would you know how to spell them if you heard them?

I know how to pronounce all but Teuntje, and as someone who had a child with a non-phonetic-in-English Irish name (both first name and surname) who spent his first eight years in London and elsewhere in England, it was never an issue. People often didn’t know how to pronounce or spell it the first time they encountered it, but they learned. I also have an Irish-language first name and surname, and have lived all over the world.

The protagonist in BBC's Hidden was called Cadi which I love.

they may well do, but names with sounds not in standard English tend to get mispronounced and misspelt. Would you know without asking how to say Andrzej, Piotr, Caoimhe, Jabier, Joao or Teuntje? Would you know how to spell them if you heard them?

Life is not a quiz. It's fine to ask or to be told how to spell or pronounce a name. 😁

I don't expect to automatically know how to pronounce or spell every name I come across in a multicultural world! Why would I?

@sunglassesonthetable , people don't usually ask, they read your name and say it how it looks to them.

I know an Andrzej, Piotr and Joao who go by Andrew, Peter and John. When I asked why, I got the 'because nobody can say and spell it properly'.

If I started a thread on Caoimhe, there probably wouldn't be much agreement on the pronunciation, and it would be misspelt quite a few times, and there would likely be at least one post saying to spell it the anglicised way.

Teuntje is something like Toontchuh. Tonia/Tonya seems a lot easier

Yep - I was put off Olivia for life by hearing “Oh-Livvy-AARGH!” being bellowed across the playground.