Welsh Names Tom Taylor. Historic Patronymics In 1292, 48 per cent of Welsh names were patronymics,...
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Transcript of Welsh Names Tom Taylor. Historic Patronymics In 1292, 48 per cent of Welsh names were patronymics,...
Welsh NamesWelsh NamesTom TaylorTom Taylor
Historic Patronymics
• In 1292, 48 per cent of Welsh names were patronymics, and in some parishes over 70 %
• By the 17th century the fixed surname was apparent in most of Wales although examples of the old naming tradition have been found in 19th century records
Patronymics
• Mab (Map) means “son of” in Welsh– Similar to Mac in Scottish or Mc in Irish– The Mab or Map reduced to just the final B or P– Bowen = Mab Owen, the son of Owen– Parry = Map Harry, son of Harry– Loads of early saints have these types of names:
Bennion, Bevan, Prichart, Price, – Llewelyn ap Dafydd ab Ieuan ap Griffith ap
Meredith– Upjohn (from ap John)
Welsh “S” Endings
• The Possessive or Genitive “S” ending means a possessive
• Loads of the most popular Welsh names are of this type
• Jones, Thomas, Roberts, Evans, Mathews, Williams, Lewis and Davis or Davies
Celtic Welsh Names
• Surnames derived from pure Celtic sources -
• Lloyd, Morgan, Gwynn, Vaughan, Meredith and Llewelyn
• Bach > Bychan > Fychan > Vaughan– Small or Junior
Place Names
• Often some names would become so repetitive that they would be augmented with the home town
• William Willaims, Pantycelyn is such a one.
• Wrote Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah and other hymns
Name Distribution in Wales and England
• WALES • 1 Jones 13.84%• 2 Williams 8.91% • 3 Davies 7.09% • 4 Thomas 5.70 • 5 Evans 5.46 • 6 Roberts 3.69• 7 Hughes 2.98• 8 Lewis 2.97• 9 Morgan 2.63• 10 Griffiths 2.58 • Total 55.85
Occupational names in Welsh
• few occupational surnames exist in Welsh • Wales is a dominantly agricultural society • limited number of occupation surnames • Gwas (servant) became the Welsh surname
Wace • Crowther is another uncommon Welsh
surname derived from crythor, the player of the crwth
• The Welsh saer (carpenter) has become Sear/s around the Pembrokeshire-Carmarthenshire border
Biblical Names
• Most countries chose to use New Testament names, the Welsh were keen on OT names, often thought to be Jewish surnames in Wales
• Aaron; Abraham/Abrahams; Daniel/Daniels; Elias (the Welsh form of Elisha); Emanuel/Emanuels; Enoch, Gabriel, Isaac/Isaacs, Joseph/Josephs; Moses; Samuel/Samuels; Solomon; Jeremiah