Welsh Name Generator

Welsh names come from one of Europe's oldest living languages, and the spelling rules are the first thing to get right. Welsh treats dd, ll, ff, ch and rh as single letters, so Gruffydd, Llewelyn and Ffion are pronounced very differently from how an English reader might guess: dd is a soft th, ll is the famous voiceless hissed l, and f is a v sound while ff is an English f. Names built on wen or gwyn (white, blessed) are everywhere in the female stock, from Bronwen and Ceinwen to Eirwen and Arianwen, and Rhi- names like Rhiannon and Rhian come straight from Celtic mythology.

Until the 1600s most Welsh people used patronymics rather than fixed surnames: Rhys ap Gruffydd was Rhys son of Gruffydd, and Gwenllian ferch Rhys was Gwenllian daughter of Rhys. When surnames were adopted under English pressure, ap and its variants fused into the family names Wales is now known for: ap Rhys became Price and Preece, ap Hywel became Powell, ap Rhisiart became Pritchard, ab Owain became Bowen. Others simply took the father's name in English form, which is why Jones, Davies, Williams, Evans and Thomas dominate the Welsh phone book to this day.

Modern Wales has revived old names with real enthusiasm. Osian, Macsen, Cadi, Efa, Seren and Ffion are among the most popular baby names in Wales, while medieval and mythological choices such as Taliesin, Pryderi, Gwenllian and Branwen give writers a rich vein for fantasy and historical characters.