Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 045

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 045

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/045

This is one of the Academy's earliest reports. We are not confident that these early reports are accurate. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here is the information we found on your name "Annowre ferch Llwyd o Bryn Ir." The name is basically historically accurate, although we propose a number of minor modifications. I'll go through each element of the name.

There are many examples of Anglo-Norman names that came into Welsh. A record from Merionydd shows English names, including Alicia, Mabilia, Margareta, Mary, and Milisandia, in the 13th century. We have no record of the name "Honora" being translated into Welsh, but it is certainly possible. We should note that English names were not universally used in Wales--in Anglesey, approximately 25 miles from Merionydd, a 15th- century record shows no English names at all.

However, it's not likely that the English "Honora" would become the Welsh "Annowre." We have never seen the dipthong "ow" in medieval Welsh--it's a strictly English sound. Given what we know about Welsh spelling patterns, the most likely spelling of the name in Welsh would be "Annora."

As a point of information, "Llwyd" (meaning "grey") is a common surname but not a common given name. The examples of "ap Llwyd" probably refer to a father who was nicknamed "Llwyd." However, there are examples of "ap Llwyd," so there's no need to change this part of the name. Although 'Llwyd' is the standard spelling of the name in Modern Welsh, 15th century records more commonly show it as 'Lloyd' or 'Lloid'--although 'Llwyd' can also be found.

"Ir" means "fresh" more than "green;" for example, the poetic phrase "irwaed" means "fresh-blood" and definitely not "green-blood." The word for natural green is "glas," and there is actually a "Brynglas" in Merionydd. "Brynglas" has the meaning you're looking for, and it's also a real place, so we recommend you use it.

The construction of the name is mostly correct. There is one point where you could improve it. In Welsh personal names, it is actually quite rare for people to use nicknames taken from places. This is in sharp contract to naming conventions in other parts of Europe. There are some examples of locative surnames, but they were not typical for the culture you are trying to re-create.

When the Welsh did use locative surnames, the grammar was somewhat different from other languages. They did not use a preposition (e.g. "of") with the proper name of a specific place. That is to say, where English would say "Peter of Bristol" or French would say "Rene' de Bordeaux", Welsh would simply say "Owain Gwynedd". The preposition was understood. "Brynglas" is a specific place, so the correct way to use it in your name would be "Annora verch Llwyd Brynglas". Prepositions were used with generic, one-word place descriptions. That is to say, the English byname "of the Hill" or "atte Hill" would be translated into Welsh as "o'r Bryn".

A final note--continuing to work from the early 15th c. dataset, "ferch" is represented in this document uniformly by the abbreviation "vz" ("z" was sometimes used for "ch"). The changeover to using "f" for the [v] sound was slow and not close to complete until the early modern period. Our evidence suggests that the most typical spelling for the full word in the 14th century would be "verch" rather than "ferch".

Your name was researched by Tangwystl verch Morgant Glasvryn and Arval D'Espas Nord.

If you need any other assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of St. Gabriel