|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Late 16C Welsh Names | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Articles > NamesLate Sixteenth Century Welsh Namesby Talan Gwynek
|
G | An unmodified given name. The first element of each name is assumed to belong to this category even if, as in the case of Goughe ap David Gittinus, it is normally in some other category. However, I have taken Gunter in Elizabeth Gunter, vergh Thomas, to be an English surname (E) despite its patronymic origin (see DES). I have tentatively taken Avan to be a variant of Evan. |
S | A possessive patronymic formed in the English style by addition of -s: Davies, Evans, Gittinus, Griffeths, Gwatkins, Gwilliams, Istans, Jenkins, Jones, Williams. |
B | A Welsh byname: Dee (du `black'), Geathen (cethin `swarthy'), Gough, Goz (coch `red(-haired)'), (G)wyn (gwyn `white, fair'), Lloyd (llwyd `grey; mouse-brown'), Moyell (moel `bare, bald'), Vaughan (bychan `small'). Note, however, that Gwyn and Llwyd were also used as forenames. |
L | Welsh locatives: Kemis (Cemais), Myvod (Meifod), Penburie (perhaps Penbre?). |
E | `English' surnames, regardless of type, except those already included in type S: Gerned(?), Gregor, Gunter, Harding, Piers, Renn(?), Taylor, White, Young. |
F | Fused Welsh patronymics: Abevan and Byvan (ap Evan), Appowell and Powell (ap Hywel), Parry (ap Harry), Prichard (ap Richard), Price (ap Rhys), Probert (ap Robert), Pugh (ap Hugh). |
P | A Welsh patronymic of the form ap G or verch G. (There are two names containing ap that do not quite fit this form. They are Griffin ap Powell and James ap Pryce, in which the patronym is written with an intrusive initial P; I have nevertheless counted these as belonging to the type GP. |
Once the name elements have been assigned to these categories, the resulting tabulations can be organized in several useful ways. At an earlier period it would be useful to count the number of generations mentioned in each name. For these names, however, there seems to be no way to distinguish Vaughan as a hereditary surname from fychan as a contemporary byname. On the first interpretation Howell Vaughan would be best classified as a two-generation name; on the second, however, it mentions only Howell himself. The simplest solution is to classify the names not by generation but by number of elements. This classification shows that although a significant number of the Welsh names have more than two elements and are therefore longer than almost all English names, the two-element name predominates even among the Welsh data. (Note that any omissions in extracting the Welsh data from PCCA are likely to be in the two-element group, which if anything is therefore underestimated here.)
Two-Element Names. There are 158 of these (74.2%). | |||||||||
GG: 43 | GS: 23 | GB: 26 | GL: 3 | ||||||
GE: 8 | GF: 21 | GP: 34 | |||||||
Three-Element Names. There are 48 of these (22.5%). | |||||||||
GGG: 6 | GGS: 2 | GGB: 2 | GGL: 1 | GGE: 2 | GGF: 1 | GGP: 7 | |||
GSP: 1 | GBP: 2 | GPG: 4 | GPS: 1 | GPB: 6 | GPF: 1 | GPP: 12 | |||
Four-Element Names. There are 7 of these (3.3%). | |||||||||
GGGB: 1 | GGGP: 1 | GGFB: 1 | GBPG: 1 | GPFE: 1 | GPPP: 2 |
A similar distinction may be drawn between names of `English' type and those of distinctively Welsh form. By a name of `English' type I mean any two-element name not of the form GP. Thus, I count Simon Maddock and Ludwig Vaughan as being of `English' type even though the specific elements mark them as Welsh. I include names of the type GF, like David Price and even John Abevan, because they too have been made to conform with English style. Conversely, a name is of Welsh type if and only if it contains a P element. On this basis the data contain 124 Welsh names of `English' type, 73 of Welsh type, and 16 that fall into neither of these categories. Of these 14 unclassified names, 14 are of one of the forms GGX with X equal to something other than P; given the existence of a pair of possible English examples of names of this form, these 12 names must be classified as ambiguous with respect to this distinction. I know of no evidence for four-element English names c. 1600, so the remaining two names, of types GGGB and GGFB, should probably be added to the category of names of Welsh type. The final totals are as follows:
`English' type | 124 (58.2%) |
Welsh type | 75 (35.2%) |
Ambiguous type | 14 (6.6%) |
These data strongly suggest that at the end of the sixteenth century Welsh naming practice was well on its way to conforming with English practice, although the differences were evidently still significant. At the same time it should be noted that these are English records and that the persons named must have been of at least moderate substance.
The names containing elements of type P contain a number of given names and spellings thereof not found as forenames in these data. It seems likely that these names and forms would occur as forenames in a larger corpus. In addition there are several given names and spellings found only in surnames of type G. For the sake of completeness I list all of these additional forms below. Those found in PCCA only as surnames of type G are marked with an asterisk, since it is possible that they show spellings not found in forename usage. Consult MM at the Welsh forms for more information.
Bedoe* | A pet form of Maredudd; Welsh Bedo. |
Daind | Probably a pet form of Dafydd; see MM. |
Dd. | A standard abbreviation for Dafydd. |
Edneved | Welsh Ednyfed. |
Elizey | See MM at Elis. Occurs in Name List [1] as Eliza. |
Griffeth* | See Name List [1] at Griffith. |
Gronoe | Welsh Goronwy. |
Gryffin* | See Name List [1] at Griffin. |
Gwalter* | Welsh Gwallter , Walter. |
Gwilliam | Welsh Gwilym, corresponding to English William. |
Gwillym* | |
Harrie* | See Name List [1] at Harry. |
Humfrey | See Name List [1] at Humphrey. |
Jevan(n) | Welsh Ieuan; Jenn is a derivative. |
Jenn | |
Lewes* | See Name List [1] at Lewis; the -es appears to be characteristic of the type S surname. |
Llewellyn | Welsh Llywelyn. |
Ll. | An abbreviation of Llywelyn. |
Llen | Either an abbreviation of Llywelyn or a pet form. |
Lloid | Welsh Llwyd, usually a byname, used as a given name. |
Madock(e) | Welsh Madog. |
Madocke | |
Maddock(e)* | |
Mereddith | See Name List [1] at Meredith. |
Merricke* | Welsh Meurig. |
Myrick* | |
Morris | |
Phillipp* | See Name List [1] at Phillip. |
Reeice | See Name List [1] at Rees. |
Ress | |
Ryce | |
Roberte | See Name List [1] at Robert; Robin is a pet form. |
Robin | |
Yeorathe | Welsh Iorwerth. |
DES | Reaney, P.H. and Wilson, R.M. A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. |
MM | Morgan, T.J. and Morgan, Prys. Welsh Surnames. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1985. |
PCCA | Ridge, C. Harold, ed. Index to Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Vol. III, 1581-1595. London: The British Record Society, Limited, 1954. |
[1] - See "Late 16th Century English Given Names by Brian Scott (Talan Gwynek)"