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Fixed surnames were adopted in Wales from the 15th century onwards. [1] Until then, the Welsh had a patronymic naming system.
In 1292, 48 per cent of Welsh names were patronymics and, in some parishes, over 70 per cent. Other names were derived from nicknames, a few non-hereditary personal names and, rarely, occupational names. [2]
Patronymic names changed from generation to generation, with a person's baptismal name being linked by ap, ab (son of) or ferch (daughter of) to the father's baptismal name. [1] For example, Evan, son of Thomas, would be known as Evan (ap) Thomas; Evan's son, John, would be John (ab) Evan; and John's son Rees would be Rees (ap) John.
Patronymics could be extended with names of grandfathers and earlier ancestors, to perhaps the seventh generation. [1] Names such as Llewelyn ap Dafydd ab Ieuan ap Gruffudd ap Meredydd were not uncommon. Those extended patronymics were essentially a genealogical history of the male line. The Encyclopaedia of Wales surmises that the system may have been Welsh law, in which it was essential for people to know how people were descended from an ancestor. [1] These laws were decaying by the later Middle Ages, and the patronymic system was gradually replaced by fixed surnames, although the use of patronymic names continued up until the early 19th century in some rural areas.
In the reign of Henry VIII surnames became hereditary amongst the Welsh gentry, and the custom spread slowly amongst commoners. [2] Areas where England's influence was strong had abandoned patronymics earlier, as did town families and the wealthy.
New surnames retained the ap in several cases, mainly in reduced form at the start of the surname, as in Upjohn (from ap John), Powell (from ap Hywel), Price (from ap Rhys), Pritchard (from ap Richard), and Bowen (from ab Owen). Alternatively, the ap was simply dropped entirely.
The most common surnames in modern Wales result from adding an s to the end of the name, as in Jones, Roberts and Edwards. Patronymic surnames with the short -s form are recorded in various parts of England dating back to the Middle Ages. As most Welsh surnames are derived from patronymics and often based on a small set of first names, Welsh communities have families bearing the same surnames who are not related. It cannot be assumed that two people named Jones, even in the same village, must have inherited the surname from a common ancestor.
The stock of Welsh surnames is small. This is partly attributable to the reduction in the variety of baptismal names after the Protestant Reformation. [1] Typical Welsh surnames – Evans, Jones, Williams, Davies, Thomas – were found in the top ten surnames recorded in England and Wales in 2000. [2] [3]
An analysis of the geography of Welsh surnames commissioned by the Welsh Government found that 718,000 people in Wales, nearly 35% of the Welsh population, have a family name of Welsh origin, compared with 5.3% in the rest of the United Kingdom, 4.7% in New Zealand, 4.1% in Australia, and 3.8% in the United States. A total of 16.3 million people in the countries studied had a name of Welsh origin. [4]
It is not uncommon for five or more of the starting XV for the Wales national rugby union team to be named Jones. For instance, all of the following played in the same period and are not immediately related to any of the others: Adam Jones, Dafydd Jones, Ryan Jones, Stephen Jones, Mark Jones, Adam M. Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, and Duncan Jones.
The prevalence of names such as Jones, Williams and Thomas brought a need for further distinction and in the 19th century a trend started for double surnames, created by prefixing the name of a house, parish or the mother's surname, as in "Cynddylan Jones". A hyphen was sometimes later introduced, for example "Griffith-Jones". [2]
Although the vast majority of Welsh surnames are family names, there has been a limited revival of patronymics in modern Wales, especially among Welsh speakers. Alternatively, given surnames are used, as in the case of the folk singer and political figure Dafydd Iwan (Dafydd Iwan Jones), opera singer Bryn Terfel (Bryn Terfel Jones), classical singer Shân Cothi, and the late actress Myfanwy Talog.[ citation needed ]
The Music of Wales, particularly singing, is a significant part of Welsh national identity, and the country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song".
The Kingdom of Gwynedd was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English is a 1977 poetry anthology edited by the author and academic Gwyn Jones. It covers both Welsh language poetry in English translation and poetry written in English by Welsh poets.
Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include:
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1997 to Wales and its people.
Ednyfed Fychan, full name Ednyfed Fychan ap Cynwrig, was a Welsh warrior who became Seneschal to the Kingdom of Gwynedd in Northern Wales, serving Llywelyn the Great and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn. Ednyfed claimed descent from Marchudd ap Cynan, Lord of Rhos, 'protector' of Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd. He was the patrilineal ancestor of Owen Tudor and thereby of the Tudor dynasty.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1998 to Wales and its people.
100 Welsh Heroes was an opinion poll run in Wales as a response to the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons poll of 2002. It was carried out mainly on the internet, starting on 8 September 2003 and finishing on 23 February 2004. The results were announced on 1 March 2004 and subsequently published in a book.
Sain, in full – Sain (Recordiau) Cyf. is a Welsh record label, which took part in the Welsh folk revival.
Jones is a surname of Welsh and English origin meaning "son of John". The surname is common in Wales. It evolved from variations of traditionally Welsh names: Ieuan, Iowan, Ioan, Iwan, or even Siôn. The sound generated from ‘Si-’ in Siôn is a Welsh approximation of the English ‘J’ sound that does not exist natively to the language, equivalent to the English ‘Sh’ such as in “shed.”
Bacheldre is a small settlement in Powys, Wales. It is near the A489 road and is 5 kilometres (3 mi) southeast of the town of Montgomery.
Anwyl of Tywyn are a Welsh family who claim a patrilinear descent from Owain Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd from 1137 to 1170 and a scion of the royal House of Aberffraw. The family motto is: Eryr eryrod Eryri, which translates as "The Eagle of the Eagles of Snowdonia. The family lives in Gwynedd and speak Welsh.
A patronymic surname is a surname originated from the given name of the father or a patrilineal ancestor. Different cultures have different ways of producing patronymic surnames.
We'll Keep a Welcome is a 2000 album by singer Bryn Terfel of traditional hymns and folk songs associated with Wales. Terfel was accompanied on the album by the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, the Risca Male Choir and The Black Mountain Chorus. The majority of the songs are sung in the Welsh language.
The Dafydd ap Gwilym Society is the Welsh society at the University of Oxford. It is a Welsh language society, as opposed to a society of Welsh people like its sister-society in Cambridge, the Mabinogi Society.
The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse (1962), edited by Thomas Parry, is an anthology of Welsh-language poetry stretching from Aneirin in the 6th century to Bobi Jones in the 20th. No translations of the poems are provided, but the introduction and notes are in English. It was the first anthology to give the reader a thorough idea of Welsh poetry in its entirety through 1400 years, containing as it does 370 poems, of which 59 cannot be securely attributed while the rest are the work of 146 named poets. It went through eight editions in its first 21 years, and was supplemented in 1977 by the publication of Gwyn Jones's Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English.
