Mumsnet "Welsh" names

[TiredWelshMam]

Who on earth wrote this article for Mumsnet?! https://www.mumsnet.com/articles/welsh-baby-names

Mam bach, mae isio mynedd!!!

@Jins , I truly don’t understand how the suggested pronunciations are so bad.
Not all of them are that bad, but the author omits to mention that the stress always falls on the last-but-one syllable, and many of the vowel sounds don't have an english/non-Welsh equivalent.

For example, Myfanwy is described as Pronounced mu-van-wee.
If you were unfamiliar with the name, how would you say mu-van-wee?
MEW-vanwee, MOO-vanwee, Move-an-WEE? It's none of those.
Capitals used to indicate the stressed syllable - Janet and Janette would be JAN-et and Jan-ET.

I'd describe it as Muh-VAN-wi (wi like the 'wi' in with)

@KnittedPond , Is the assumption that no one actually speaks ... Welsh so no one is going to notice your ‘sources’ are random AI-generated nonsense like Nameberry?
The original article seems to suggest so, but it has been edited a little since then.
At least the Welsh for Adam is no longer listed under 'girl's names'.

There are a lot of extremely popular Welsh names that do not appear in the article, but several badly dated or obscure names do.

The list was "unusual" though not unheard of...apparently only 9 children were named betsan in 2021 so in fairness it is pretty unusual! Just trying not to be TOO pedantic on a list that is demanding it....

That was my point re: alwyn as well -they've clearly got it mixed up with arwen thus showing they are ignorant of literature as well as nomenclature!

@1offnamechange , but it isn't unusual amongst Welsh-speakers.
Bear in mind that there aren't that many Welsh-speakers and the name is probably not known to many non-Welsh speakers, 9 is quite a lot.
Manon is very popular in Wales, but only 21 were registered in 2021,and some of those may have French heritage.

Also, it is listed under 'Traditional Welsh baby girl names' not 'unusual'. It's not particularly traditional, just a diminutive of Elisabeth/Elizabeth. Leusa or Beti would probably be the more usual diminutives

Ebrill is also listed under 'Traditional Welsh baby girl names'. AFAIK it's not a name. I've never heard of or met one and none are registered on Darkgreener.

Under 'Traditional Welsh baby girl names' I'd list names like Siân, Gwen, Catrin, Mari/Mair and the like, not Begw and Blodeuwedd. I haven't heard the name mentioned other than by my grandmother who if still alive would be about 115 yrs old. I've not heard of a Blodeuwedd other than in the Mabinogi.

It's not a case of being pedantic, the article has much wrong with it.

Under unusual names for girls it has Wren. Wren isn't all that unusual, but it's definitely not Welsh, and pronounced phonetically is dangerously similar to the word for whore.

I really don't think our definitions of 'unusual' and 'very popular' are the same.
21 children named Manon (whether 'just' out of the 28,879 born in wales or the 625,008 in eng and wales that year) can't be in any way shape or form described as popular to me. Although tbf I do actually know a Manon!

similarly if there were only 9 betsan's then of course it's unusual amongst welsh speakers as well as non-welsh speakers, because even if all 9 of those betsan's were welsh speakers it's still the 2781st most popular name that year, thus = unusual!
Does a child have to be called X Æ A-Xii before you consider it to be unusual?

@1offnamechange , I've gone through the posts I made addressing the article itself, and I did not actually post that Betsan isn't unusual. It was you who said I did.

FWIW, I know loads of women and girls called Sioned but none were registered in 2021. Would I say the name Sioned is unusual or popular? As a Welsh speaker, I'd say it was very popular but not currently trendy. As a british name throughout England & Wales/GB/UK I would say it was fairly unusual, but the context skews it.

"As a Welsh speaker, I'd say it was very popular but not currently trendy. As a british name throughout England & Wales/GB/UK I would say it was fairly unusual"

I know loads of Sioneds, but every Welsh language name is unusual if you go on numbers compared to English names.

Quite. Siân is probably not considered an unusual Welsh name but only 16 were registered in 1021.