Cornish Name Generator

Cornish names come from Kernewek, the Brittonic language of Cornwall, which is a close cousin of Welsh and Breton rather than of English. Traditional given names are drawn from Cornish saints and Arthurian legend (Piran, Petroc, Jago, Jory, Jowan, Tristan, Locryn) and from the revived language's vocabulary, which gives the soft, vowel-heavy names that have spread far beyond Cornwall: Elowen (elm), Kerensa (love), Morwenna (sea maiden), Demelza, Tamsyn, Lowenna (joy), Steren (star), Tegen (pretty thing) and Wenna. Many Cornish boys' names end in a hard consonant (Hedrek, Cadan, Kenver, Massen) while girls' names tend to end in -a, -en or -wen.

Surnames are the most recognisable part of a Cornish name. The old rhyme 'By Tre, Pol and Pen ye shall know the Cornishmen' refers to place-name surnames built from tre (farmstead), pol (pool) and pen (headland): Trelawney, Tremayne, Trevithick, Polglase, Polkinghorne, Penrose, Penhaligon, Pengelly. Alongside them sit names like Nancarrow and Nankervis (nans, valley), Bolitho, Curnow (Cornishman), Angove (the smith), Chenoweth (new house) and Cornish patronymics such as Pascoe, Jago and Clemo.

Every name on this page pairs a Kernewek or saint's given name with a documented Cornwall surname, so the combinations read as convincingly local.