Taliesin - can I use it?

[Sonyo]

Always loved this name. I didn't go through with it for my first because of my family's opinions on it, but I'm due next spring with my third and last baby and would really love to use it if it's a boy.

The only issue is, I'm not Welsh, but I do have Welsh heritage, and my surname also starts with T (two syllables, ends in ie sound and has an S in there).

just so you know flwright.org/explore/taliesin

My ex neighbours called their house this

I’m a nurse and automatically makes me think of a medication before I’d read the full thread title

Lovely name.

I've been to the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpiece - an amazing place. I believe he also built a home and studio in Arizona with the same name. It clearly held some deep significance for him.

Yes @mathanxietyTaliesin West is beautiful

You’ve picked me up for using an upper case I instead of lower, when you know how predictive text is difficult to work with. Shall I, as a Welsh learner, stop trying altogether? Please advise.

Diolch un fawr iawn @Arlanymor ! I've never heard Swyn, lovely though. Looking up the pronunciation has reminded me of the usefulness of that Intl Phonetic Alphabet I learnt many years ago at uni - I might brush up!...

It’s a large Art Centre in Swansea and named after a bard.

Taliesin (/ˌtælˈjɛsɪn/ tal-YES-in, Welsh: [talˈjɛsɪn]; fl. 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three kings. Taliesin means "shining brow" in Welsh.

*yn fawr iawn, apologies!

@WhereDidSummerGoAgain , Niamh gets said as Neev and Seren as Serrun, and Siobhán sounds nicer in an Irish accent, so I'm not sure that they have (mostly) managed to get their heads round them.

The Tally-yessin mispronunciation would annoy me too much to use it. It's also quite a big name. I prefer Llew.

It was an L not an I. @ClaredeBear. Predictive text is a nightmare if you're writing Welsh.

Swyn is a tricky one because the w and y join - it would get said as Soo-in, but that's not right.

I never understand the thing you always get on MN of ‘people won’t know how to say it or pronounce it’. Surely in a multi cultural society we are all now used to names beyond the traditional John and Mary type names ? Do people really not come into contact with people from a non-English heritage where they had to double-check pronunciation and spelling of a name the first time they met, but are now used to it and don’t give the name a second thought?

No medication link for me so I really don’t think that’s the first thing to enter people’s minds either.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea , Would people know how to say Llew?

Probably not when reading it, but they only need to ask. And if introduced verbally then they can ask the spelling if they need to know. The same as if meeting someone with a Slovenian, Croatian or Arabic name they hadn’t come across before .

While I'm strongly in favour of using names from our non-English heritage in England, I think using sounds which many English people here would be unable to say at all is probably a step too far.

I love Llinos for example, but most English people aren't just unfamiliar with the pronunciation of Llew or Llinos, they can't actually produce the Ll sound at all IME, even when told what it should sound like.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea , It is highly unlikely that someone would be able to say Llew properly. The Ll and the ew have no equivalent sounds in English. Arabic has sounds you don't get in English too.

A name like Snježana could be tricky.

What you say and what people hear are not the same.

@WhereDidSummerGoAgain , I know a Llinos and she gets people saying her name as Cleenose.

I know of a 12yo with this name in England, and he gets called Tally for short. One of his parents is Welsh and very proud.

I agree with others that in a largely multicultural society it shouldn't be an issue to learn to pronounce a name/ask politely how to say it. I've got a long name and some struggle with it and I can get a bit of a pause if they've never heard it (it's a traditional Irish name). But I was glad I wasn't another Sarah, Louise or Claire at school and beyond.

If you love it and are prepared to educate most people (I find a tricky name is a nice conversation starter sometimes) then go for it OP!

I was just about to say the same...

I agree with others that in a largely multicultural society it shouldn't be an issue to learn to pronounce a name/ask politely how to say it.
The conversation goes something like this, 'What's your name?'
'Llew'
'How do you spell it?'
'L L E W'
'Oh Lou'
'No, Llew'
'Clow?'
'Llew'
'Thloo?'
'Llew'
'Chloo?' (ch like in loch)
'Llew'
'Can I call you Lew?'

Agree, there are sounds in other languages that aren’t in English @ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea.

If a name has one of those sounds people won’t be able to say it properly, they’ll try and they’ll approximate it at best.
It happens with Irish names all the time too.

I was asked my name recently and the person writing it down got all the letters apart from one wrong. I'd given a simple name that is phonetic but was probably not one that person was familiar with. (Something like writing Edna as Ubma).