ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2951 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2951 ************************************ 29 Oct 2004 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 15th or 16th century Welshman. Here is what we have found. You've chosen well, though we will recommend different spellings of your name. The two masculine given names and were both in use in Wales in your period; and the overall form of your name is typical of names in late-period records [1]. The name was pronounced \HREES ahp HRUHDH-ehrkh\ where \DH\ represents the sound of in and \kh\ stands for the raspy sound in the Scottish word or German . However, the particular spellings you've chosen may not be appropriate for your period. In the article where you found these names, the form of each name given in the first column is the standard modern Welsh spelling of the name. The spellings in the second column are ones found in 16th century documents -- but those documents were written by English scribes using anglicized spellings. appears in these and similar 16th century documents as , , , , , , , etc. appears as , , , , and in many other spellings [1, 2]. We therefore know that your name could have be written by an English-speaking scribe in many ways, e.g. , , etc. A 16th century Welsh-speaking scribe would have used a different set of spellings (with some overlap). One source, written c.1600, uses the spellings and [3]. Following that guide, we recommend you write your name in Welsh as . We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Effrick neyn Kenneoch, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 29 Oct 2004 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Jones, Heather Rose (aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn), "A Simple Guide to Constructing 16th Century Welsh Names (in English Contexts)" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/welsh16.html [2] Morgan, T.J. and Prys Morgan, _Welsh Surnames_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1985), s.nn. Rhydderch, Rhys. [3] Dwnn, Lewys, ed. By Samuel Rush Meyrick. 1846. Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches (vols I & II). Welsh Manuscripts Society, Llandovery. Dwnn consistently uses rather than in personal names; and uses before words beginning with both consonants and vowels.