Can I give my son a welsh name if I’m not Welsh

[naivesquirrel]

I’ve seen this question around a little bit but not sure if there are many recent ones so wonder if the sentiment has changed.

I love the name Rhydian, however I am not welsh. Would it be considered inappropriate to name him that? I grew up around Bristol however, so these names are rather familiar to me. I wonder the same about some of the traditional irish names, I have irish ancestry but would never claim to be irish - would names like Siobhan or Eoin be considered inappropriate

thanks!!

I’m Scottish and half of the kids in Dds class have Irish names

I really like the name Rhydian. Its lovely but I do know a very lovely handsome Rhydian. I'm a welsh speaker from long lines of welsh ancestry. A few generations ago, they didnt even speak english. However, I have a very 70's english name 🙄

It'll be shortened to Rhid (pronounced 'Rid')

Why?

That was a lecture was it? Less than a sentence? Hmm... extreme response. Which makes sense actually...

I love this response.

'A name is a name with an actual pronunciation'

One that can and does change all the time, and one that is determined by the person with the name and not you.

Who cares about the fada?

Because in Welsh LL is one letter not two. Llewelyn is not 'Loo-elin' - the LL and L have different sounds.

Llewellyn is 'Loo-elin' because it's not Welsh. Lloyd is 5 letters, Llwyd is 4.

So you would change your surname because Welsh has a different orthography to English?

That's an irrationally drastic response to a diagraph.

Have you dug around in your family trees? Most of us have Welsh heritage somewhere. There is generally a lot of movement around the United Kingdom over the years.

My kids have a Welsh grandparents on their dad’s side and a Welsh great grandparent on my side.

It's not. It makes sense. Llewellyn looks looks like a typo.
It looks wrong in the way that something like Timoty would.

That's an irrationally drastic response to a diagraph.
That is offensive.

'Timoty' doesn't look wrong to me. Having done absolutely no research (because, why would anyone care enough to do any) it immediately looks to me to be an alternative spelling of Timothy, probably from another country that doesn't have the sound 'th'.

So quite similar to English pronunciations of Welsh words, because English doesn't have the LL sound.

Question for you: who pronounces their name correctly between Michael Ballack (German) and Michael Ball (English)?

People gatekeeping the Welsh language are also those destroying it. We talk about it regularly at Eisteddfod... all languages evolve, including Welsh. I mean Ambwlance isn't pure Welsh is it?! We need to encourage people, not chastise them. People pronouncing the Ll digraph as a single English L is not going to bring our language to its knees. People being twats. Yes probably.

'Timoty' doesn't look wrong to me...
It was a top of my head example. If you are bilingual you switch from one language to the other automatically. My brain sees the Llew... and reads it as a Welsh word then finds an error,

So quite similar to English pronunciations of Welsh words, because English doesn't have the LL sound.
I don't understand what you mean.

Question for you: who pronounces their name correctly between Michael Ballack (German) and Michael Ball (English)?
I've not heard Michael Ballack say his name. It doesn't compare because the name is both English and German.

It's ambiwlans.

Oh you bit...

Or my friend who called their daughter Camille and pronounced it Cam eeeeel 🙈

I am actually trilingual (not a boast, only a response to your bilingual comment to demonstrate I do have the same experience as you). In fact, I find the fact I can deal with 3 orthographies to make me very accepting of alternate pronunciations. Almost the polar opposite of you.

English doesn’t have the LL sound you keep saying is so important. So it’s absolutely normal to substitute sounds that do exist in English for those that don’t. If you don’t understand that I’m not sure there was ever any point in you contributing to the conversation.

Finally, if a non Welsh speaking person has a surname of Welsh origin, then that name is effectively ‘in’ English in the same way that Michael (no a name of English or German origin’ is ‘in’ both those languages as you put it.
Using your own logic, the name can then be pronounced as the name holder wishes.

Totally agree with you as a proud Welsh speaker!

I am also tri-lingual! I guess the more you speak and understand the intricacies of how languages evolve and matter to people, the more you get the real world. I hate when people gatekeep Welsh - brilliant way to put people off ever being interested in it or, at worst, thinking it is wrong and/or an irrelevancy. We've had enough of that in the past, modern Welsh is about applauding people for giving it a go and not 'telling off' people for mispronunciations or for how they say their own name and indubitably how it has been said in their family for generations!

This all could have been avoided with some decent planning. If you had a Welsh name that you really loved, then you should have made sure your baby had a Welsh dad (that's what I did. It did take two tries before I got a boy though 🤣)

@HudALledrith @Arlanymor - love the user names :-)
I did try and register Arlanymor as my last name change, but it was obviously already taken!

I’m Welsh, with a Welsh name, and have lived in England half my life. Most people I meet or speak to here struggle to pronounce my name properly. I’ve tried multiple ways to directly and indirectly ask them to pronounce it properly, and it is very hit and miss whether it works or not. It’s great when they do say it properly, but I’m so used to some close friends and family, as well as work colleagues, not pronouncing it as I do. It used to really bother me, but it bothers me less now the older I get. So I’d just be prepared for that.
What do you think of Rhys? I’d imagine that would be pronounced consistently.

I have no objection to someone whose name is Llewellyn saying it as Loo-elin because it's an anglicised name.
With my background, it would be said as Llewelyn and my parents would have changed it before I was born.

The LL sound is important in Welsh.

I speak more than two languages. Not all use a Latin script. I don't consider myself multi-lingual. My DP has English as his 5th language. He says my [his 2nd and 3rd languages] are very good but I think he's just being nice.

Someone can use a name from another language if they like but I don't have to approve. They can say it how they like, it's not my name. If I think 'that's awful' I'd keep it to myself.

I'm not safeguarding, I just hate the way I can be in a meeting and someone introduces themselves as 'Name' only to hear one or two insist on using their own version.
The best example was Eleni. Easy to say but some kept calling her Elleny or Elainy, despite having heard it said correctly dozens of times.
Names like David and Peter tend to become the English versions.

Welshie here - go for it but be prepared. That he will live a lifetime of no one knowing how to pronounce it (except for Welshies living out in the wild)

Mae'n ddrwg gen i! If it helps I do literally live by the sea in Abertawe!

It gets said differently in Wales.