Welsh Last Name Generator

Browse 500 real Welsh surnames: the patronymics that fill the country, such as Jones, Davies and Evans, the ap and ab names like Powell, Pritchard and Bevan, descriptive names like Lloyd and Vaughan, and recorded variants such as Prothero, Protheroe and Prydderch.

About Welsh last names

For centuries the Welsh had no fixed surnames. A man was his father's son, Dafydd ap Rhys, and a woman her father's daughter, Gwenllian ferch Rhys. Fixed surnames spread slowly from the sixteenth century on, and most families simply froze the father's name, often with an English -s. That is why a handful of names fill the country: Jones, Davies, Williams, Evans, Thomas, Roberts and Hughes.

The word ap (ab before a vowel) also fused with the name that followed. Ap Hywel became Powell, ap Rhys became Price and Pryce, ap Richard became Pritchard, ab Owen became Bowen, ab Evan became Bevan and ab Einion became Beynon. A second, smaller group comes from nicknames: Lloyd from llwyd (grey), Vaughan from fychan (the younger or smaller), Gwyn and Wynne from gwyn (white or fair), Gough from coch (red). Others come from Welsh forenames and estates, such as Morgan, Meredith, Cadwallader, Mostyn, Pennant and Nanney.

Because the stock is small, the list reaches 500 through recorded variant spellings (Prothero, Protheroe, Prydderch, Prytherch), Welsh-language forms such as Gruffydd, Llwyd and Tomos, families long settled in Pembrokeshire, Gower, Glamorgan and the Marches (Stradling, Perrot, Turberville), and a few ap and ab surnames that families use today. Ferch forms are left out, because they were women's patronymics and never became surnames.

How to choose Welsh last names

• For a modern Welsh character, a very common surname is the realistic choice. Jones, Davies, Evans, Williams or Thomas with a distinctly Welsh first name reads as Welsh at once.
• Use the region. Woosnam, Bebb, Jarman and Hamer suit Montgomeryshire and mid Wales, Gibby, Skyrme, Reynish and Scourfield suit south Pembrokeshire, Leyshon, Yorath and Treharne suit Glamorgan, and Foulkes, Bithell and Cunnah suit the north-east.
• For a story set before about 1500, skip the fixed surnames and write a patronymic: ap or ab and the father's name for a son, ferch and the father's name for a daughter.
• Pick one spelling and keep it. Prothero and Protheroe, Pryce and Pryse, Gwyn, Gwynn and Gwynne, or Llewellyn and Llewelyn are separate surnames on paper, and families hold on to their own form.
• An ap or ab surname such as ap Rhys or ab Owain is written with a small a, even though it is part of the family name.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common last names in Wales?

Jones is the best known, followed by names such as Davies, Williams, Evans, Thomas, Roberts, Hughes, Lewis, Edwards and Morgan. Most of them are patronymics, a father's first name turned into a family name. All of them are in this list.

What do ap and ab mean in Welsh names?

Both mean "son of" and come from the Welsh word mab, son. Ab is used before a vowel and ap before a consonant, so it is ab Owain but ap Rhys. When surnames became fixed, the word often fused with the father's name, which gave Powell, Price, Pritchard, Probert, Pugh, Parry, Bowen, Bevan and Beynon.

Why are there so few different Welsh surnames?

Surnames were fixed late, at a time when most men shared a small number of first names such as John, David, William, Evan and Thomas. Freezing those names as surnames produced huge numbers of people called Jones, Davies, Williams, Evans and Thomas. The rarer names in the list, such as Yorath, Gethin, Anwyl and Kyffin, come from older Welsh forenames, nicknames and places.

Are Prothero, Protheroe and Prydderch the same name?

They share a source, ap Rhydderch, but they are recorded as separate surnames and are listed separately here, together with Prytherch and Rhydderch itself. The same is true of Price, Pryce, Pryse and Preece, which all go back to ap Rhys. No spelling is more correct than another.

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