Welsh names

Welsh, known to its speakers as Cymraeg, is a living Celtic language of Wales and one of the oldest languages in Europe. It holds official status in Wales, and it is in the middle of a determined revival. The Annual Population Survey estimated about 851,700 Welsh speakers in the year to September 2024, teaching in the language has expanded, and the Welsh Government's Cymraeg 2050 strategy sets a target of a million speakers by the middle of the century. Names drawn from this tradition carry a language that people still speak, sing, and raise children in.

Welsh names lean toward nature and plain description, and their sounds can look unfamiliar on the page. The double 'll', as in Llywelyn, is a single sound made by holding the tongue as for 'l' and breathing around it. The 'dd' is the soft 'th' heard in 'this'. Many common surnames are patronymics that folded a father's name into the child's. The Welsh 'ap' or 'ab' means 'son of', and over time the vowel dropped and fused: 'ab Owen' became Bowen, 'ab Evan' became Bevan, and 'ap Rhys' became Price.

Dylan comes from Welsh elements read as 'great tide' or 'sea', and it belongs to Dylan ail Don, a sea figure in the medieval Mabinogi who takes to the water soon after birth. The poet Dylan Thomas carried it into wider use, and the singer Bob Dylan carried it further. Arthur is the legendary king's name, and its origin is genuinely debated: the leading idea ties it to Welsh 'arth', meaning bear, while others propose the Roman family name Artorius or the star Arcturus. Gwendolyn opens with 'gwen', a much-used element meaning 'white, fair, blessed'.

One honest note. Some popular American names such as Brycen, Brynlee, and Bryson borrow the sound of Welsh Bryn and Bry, but they are English coinages rather than traditional Welsh names. Our library sets the genuinely Welsh and the Welsh-flavored side by side: Dylan, Arthur, Gwendolyn, Bryn and Brynn, Griffin, Evan, Rhys, Bowen, Morgan, and Ellis.