Welsh baby names that English family can pronounce easily

[sunshinecjw]

Hiya everyone, this is my first time posting so looking forward to hearing all of your thoughts!!

We are looking for Welsh names that are easy for my English side of the family to pronounce.

My top girl names are Mali and Cadi (please let me know your opinions on these) but I also love names like Ani, mabli and Llio. No long names, nothing overly common.
I also need a middle name that is preferably one (or two) syllable.

We think we have decided on a boy name but I would love to hear any unusual suggestions that I haven’t already heard (I feel like I have gone through every Welsh name list that exists).

I am well past my due date at this point so I would be mega grateful of any help/suggestions.

Eleri isn’t like celery at all. True.
If you think about the middle of “hilarious” it’s more like that. Not true.

It's El-ERR-y. Like Lerry, and rhymes with berry not hairy.

I particularly like Meirion, Eifion and Hefin, though the latter is apparently an 'old man' name!
They're all 'old man' names. Meirion and Eifion are examples of names that you need to be able to speak Welsh to say, otherwise they get said as Merriun and Avian.

Hefin seems to date the person to around 1960. The names that are popular often sound a bit like popular names in England. Hefin, Dylan and Carys popular at the same time as Kevin, Darren and Karen.

My DD went to school with a Cadi (in England) no one knew whether to say Caddy or Caydy.

@ExtremeDecluttering , Welsh is phonetic. Caydy would need to be spelt Ceidi, or Cêdi.

Just checked with fluent child and she confirms it’s more like hairy than berry (south wales)

Megan
Rhodri

It might be where you are but I know many, many Eleris are not El-airys. The Eleri on Pobol y Cwm rhymes with Berry as did the one on Rownd a Rownd.

There is no reason for it to not rhyme with Ceri, Cwmderi etc.
It's not 'dialect', it's accent, so about the same as saying Natalie is pronounced Na'erlie.

Yes but the question was would English people pronounce it correctly, my answer is quite likely not, as many would say Caydy

@ExtremeDecluttering , the OP said We are looking for Welsh names that are easy for my English side of the family to pronounce.,so they'd probably be told 'This is Cadi ('Caddy').' and they'd be fine with it.

If little Cadi is going to be living in England then she might get 'Caydy' a lot.

I pp'd more to do with whether or not you were bothered about names being
said two ways like Bethan/Bethun or Arthur,
or if you wanted names like Bryn or Gwen, and
whether you wanted names that would work in non-Welsh speaking areas.

Celyn (KELL-in)
Nia
Cerys
Betsi
Tesni

Nye
Deri
Rhodri

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?

I like Cerys.

And Delilah (everyone knows how to pronounce that thanks to Tom Jones)

A friend has DD Betsan, DS Idris and DS Tegid (Teggid not Teegid), so her English family wouldn't struggle with Welsh children's names.

I think the one thing to be mindful of are the names which sound the same (or similar) in Welsh and English but which have a 'Welsh' spelling such as Lili or Harri, or i know a little Elsi. Lovely names, but your child will be destined to have to spell them out for people or correct their spelling, especially anywhere outside of Wales. Not a massive big deal but something to think about.

Jones

Love the name Carys. I have a friend with this name and she's absolutely stunning and the name just suits her so well!

Depends on whether you want people to pronounce the names the English way or the Welsh way to be honest. Rhiannon in Welsh and Rhiannon in English are not the same. I would go for names that sound the same in both languages, which also rules out names like Dylan. For a girl you are on safe ground with Alys, Mabli, Ffion.

Although Jones is not a Welsh name and there’s no J in the Welsh alphabet, we had to adopt it in the end because our neighbours couldn’t handle spelling/saying ap Ioan.

Welsh here 👋
Llongyfarchiadau! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Girls -
Nansi (my mother's name)
Buddug (old for Victoria?)
Enfys (rainbow)

Boys -
Sulien (sun born)
Llew
Griff
Cadoc

I like Niamh and Rhys.

Hi OP. Also a Welsh learner here with fluent DH and kids. Also needed easy to pronounce Welsh names for my English side of the family! i think English people would struggle with Llio

Mabli, Mali and Cadi are really easy to pronounce and spell so no issues there. All really popular at the moment too.

other girls options:
Megan
Nia
Betsan
Ffion
Liliwen
Catrin
Beca
Anni
Nansi
Alys
Hana
Bethan (unless the English side would say Bethun then don’t pick that one)

Macsen
Tomos (if they’d be ok pronouncing it Tomos not thomas otherwise no)
Dewi
Aled
Jac
Elis
Osian (it’s easy to say just not spell maybe)
Cai
Harri
Gethin

Jones is from ap Siôn. Siôns - Jones.
Buddug (old for Victoria?) - probably Boudica.
Niamh is Irish, the Welsh name is Nia.

I currently know children called Emlyn, Mabli, Cerys (or Carys, I'm not sure), Seren and previously knew an Eleri. All in England (am assuming possible Welsh heritage). I like all of these, and haven't known of any difficulties with pronunciation. Eleri and Carys are my favourites

Yes and ap Ioan, it’s derived from both.