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!!

@oOemeOo , Don't tell me - Hereward and Wulfrun?

How did you guess?!

Tarquin and Hugo actually

I used my own DC's names

I'm born and bred in England and married to a Welsh speaking man called Rhidian! It's a lovely name, I like it pronounced 'correctly' by a Welsh speaker and also the English alphabet way. My husband couldn't care less how it's pronounced, he expects his Welsh speaking friends and family to pronounce it Rhid-Yann and happy for anyone else to pronounce it Ridd-ee-uhn. I land somewhere in between and find it really hard to pronounce the Welsh 'Rh' despite 20 years of trying! My Londoner parents have stuck with Ridd-yunn. 99% of local friends and family called him Ridd or Ridds. He would say it's completely fine. His Welsh speaking sisters kids all have very traditionally English names spelled using the Welsh alphabet.

He's the only Rhidian I have ever come across, so it'll probably be lovely and unusual too.

@GoodLordMother We're in S. Wales with a Rhidian and have only ever come across two others, plus a Rhiddian (according to his name badge) who once served us in a supermarket. My DS was quite young at the time and nearly exploded with the effort of holding in 'He's spelt his name wrong!' until we were about five steps away from the till. Lots of people try to spell it with a 'y', because that's become a much more popular spelling, but it doesn't bother him. I used the 'i' spelling because I grew up not far from Llanrhidian in Gower, so that was just the natural spelling of it for me, and it's been around since the 6th century, so there are no grounds for calling it 'wrong'! We've always had lots of compliments on his name.

Just don't try the Spanish pronunciation 😂
This reel has that and the Welsh way...
www.instagram.com/reel/DKjo_ZPIQnj/?vrfl=aXBnaTF5OHc0bzl0

I love Ignacio Lopez 😂

I'd spell it Rhidian too, @spiderlight.
Slightly bemused by the 'correctly' in the pp.
Ignacio Lopez is funny. He was on 'Iaith as Daith'. The pronunciation is probably better from speakers of a phonetic language than from those who only speak English. (Based on my own experience not extensive research )

A man working on the checkout as a local supermarket has a 'very foreign' name. I asked 'Are you part-[nationality]?'. He said he wasn't. I felt a bit silly so I said 'Sorry, I'm probably not the first to ask.' He said 'Don't worry, I'm used to it.'
Poor guy has probably had a lifetime of it.

As a non Welsh speaking Welsh descendant of many Welsh (and Welsh speaking) Llewellens, (pronounced exactly the same as Llywelyn), what is it you object to? Is it the spelling? Do you know why that happened?

I don't object to it. I was responding to the pp:

Cathod · 27/10/2026 17:22
I'm Welsh and say do what you like but I personally find it a bit cringe. I was at university with a girl whose surname was 'Llewellyn' and she couldn't pronounce it properly.

As far as I'm concerned, the girl whose surname it was wasn't wrong.

I just wouldn't use that spelling myself as I would say it and spell it as 'Llywelyn' and I know people who have surnames like Parri, Puw, ap [first name], Huws, Fôn, Ifans etc.
The actor Rhys Ifans' brother uses his parents' surname, Evans. Rhys changed his. His surname, his choice.

The pronounciation of Llewellen in my family has always been just like Llywelyn because that’s the patronym it came from, and the pronounciation was transferred orally by Welsh speakers (a lot of whom were probably illiterate). The spelling was done by English speaking clerks who kept the parish records.

I don't disagree. My family tree has names recorded with the English spellings even though the bearers never used those spellings. They weren't illiterate but the names were recorded by the registrar.

I don't wish to give the actual names as they might be recognisable, but something like Llewelyn Puw would be registered as Llewellyn Pugh. We're talking late 19th and early 20th centuries.

@Mixedberrygenderfluidmuffin , if that really is your surname, you are possibly outing yourself. I'm not accusing you of fibbing.

Me too, I find it a bit cringe.

We once met an English family whomhad given their daughter a Welsh name but spelled it using the masculine form, not the feminine one.
They tried to justify it by saying it they'd 'spelled it the English way'. 🤔

It’s not my surname, all my ancestors with that name are dead.
I actually find all the multiple misspelled variants of the name quite interesting though.

I gave my daughter an Italian name. We can pronounce it. A lot of people can’t. We don’t regret it at all. If anyone has a problem with it, that’s their look out, you use whatever name you like.

@Mixedberrygenderfluidmuffin , thanks. The name has almost died out. Someone I know married a man who was the only one with the surname.

@Oganesson118 , if you have a name that people generally misspell or mispronounce it becomes your problem not theirs.