![Welsh surnames: signature of Owain Glyndŵr, Prince of Wales. Bottom of a diplomatic letter sent from Pennal, Gwynedd to Charles VI of France in March 1406. The Latin text reads: Vester ad vota / Owynus princeps Wall[ie]. “Yours avowedly, / Owain, Prince of Wales” Original in the Archives nationales, Paris](https://bylines.cymru/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Welsh-surnames-750x536.jpeg)
Until sometime around the 15th and 16th centuries, Welsh surnames were most often given as ‘son of’ (ab/ap) or ‘daughter of’ (ferch/verch). Or sometimes they were descriptive, based on physical characteristics or place names. They later became increasingly anglicised and, by the 17th and 18th centuries, were fixed and inherited.
A look at the history of Welsh surnames shows how internal and external influences in the country could affect them. Someone’s name is such a core, intimate part of their life experience and identity, yet it’s not only their family who can impose it.
‘A Welshman’s pedigree’
The Welsh rulers, who had a greater need to display their ancestry and inherited rights, long used the patronymic system of naming. For example, Ceredig ap Cunedda (Ceredig son of Cunedda) and Usai ap Ceredig (Usai son of Ceredig), the fifth-century rulers of Ceredigion.
Under the Laws of Hywel Dda in the 10th century, it became necessary for poorer people to prove their ownership of land by right of descent, and this patronymic system was used. Thus someone might be known as Robert ap Trevor ap George, and so on (Robert son of Trevor son of George). Many Welshmen could recite their ancestry for multiple generations back – hence the phrase ‘as long as a Welshman’s pedigree’.
This system, abbreviated, was also useful for distinguishing people locally. If there were two Johns in a village, one might be known as John ap Rees and another as John ab Arthur. Descriptive names based on physical attributes or the place where a person lived were also used.
Ifor Bach (Little Ifor) famously scaled the walls of Cardiff Castle with his bare hands to capture the Earl of Gloucester and his family in 1158, and subsequently had a nightclub named after him. The name of Owain Glyndŵr came from that of his estate at Glyndyfrdwy, ‘valley of the River Dee’ (‘dyfr’ is an archaic Welsh word for ‘dŵr’ = water). Unlike in most of the rest of Europe, names based on trades or professions – such as the English ‘Smith’ – were rare.
Sons and daughters
I’m sure most readers are familiar with seeing ‘ap’ (son of) in names. But what of women? As noted, the feminine equivalent of ‘ab/ap’ is ‘ferch’ (daughter of).
Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd (Gwenllian, daughter of Gruffydd) was the 12th-century rebel princess of Deheubarth. Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn (1282–1337) was the daughter of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Prince of Wales. The mythical Branwen ferch Llŷr (Branwen, daughter of Llŷr) is a character in the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh stories dating from around the 11th and 12th centuries.
An Inventory of the Early Chancery Proceedings Concerning Wales (EA Lewis, University Press Cardiff, 1937) lists a large number of women with ‘verch’ in their names appearing in 16th-century court cases. These include Gwen verch Ieuan, Mevanwy verch David, and Katherine verch William. So such names do exist, though they are not often seen, as women appear less often in history books for reasons well explored elsewhere.
Some technicalities
‘Mab’ is the Welsh word for ‘son’, cognate with the Gaelic ‘Mac’. ‘Merch’ is the Welsh word for daughter. When used in names to mean ‘son of’ and ‘daughter of’ they undergo a soft mutation to ‘fab’ and ‘ferch’.
However, by convention, ‘fab’ was shortened to ‘ab’ before a vowel and ‘ap’ before a consonant, to improve lenition. (Lenition is, in Celtic languages, the process or result of palatalising a consonant. Palitalisation is the secondary articulation of consonants, by raising the body of the tongue towards the hard palate and the alveolar ridge).
In the modern Welsh alphabet, the letter ‘f’ represents the ‘vee’ sound. Before Welsh orthography was standardised in 1928, ‘f’ was often written as ‘v’, which is why we see ‘verch’ in older manuscripts.
The Laws in Wales Acts
Henry VIII’s Laws in Wales Acts annexed Wales to the kingdom of England and unified the Welsh and English legal systems. This had two effects on Welsh personal names.
The first was the declaration that those using the Welsh language would be forbidden from holding public office. This led to Welsh parents who wanted their children to get on in the world no longer giving them Welsh names, but choosing English ones.
Another factor at around that time was the religious crackdown after the Protestant Reformation. Parents became afraid to give ‘pagan’ names like Llywarch and Gwalchmai, or Catholic devotional names like Gwasmair (Servant of the Virgin Mary). These factors led to a shortlist of ‘safe’ names like the biblical Thomas, John, and David, or royal names like Edward and Richard. Especially John.
Another consequence of the Acts was that the Welsh gentry became part of the English peerage and consequently had to have fixed, inheritable surnames. This may have started with the gentry – Henry’s main concern – but it subsequently filtered down to poorer people, those less influence. Since it happened around the same time as the reduction in the number of first names, it led in turn to a limited number of surnames.
Changing names
There were two main methods used in creating the new fixed surnames. One was to modify the old ‘ab/ap’ system, keeping the consonant as a prefix to the father’s name. Thus we see Bowen (ab Owen), Parry (ap Harry), Price (ap Rees), Pugh (ap Hugh), and so on.
The other method was to anglicise the surname by adding a final ‘s’ to the father’s name. Thus we find Williams (that is, William’s, meaning belonging to William, or William’s son/daughter), Jones (John’s), Davies/Davis (David’s), Edwards, and so on. Especially Jones.
So there were, for example, a great many people named John Jones. This led no doubt to an expansion of the practice of giving nicknames, which were needed to distinguish between all the people with identical baptismal names. Rachel Morris has written an amusing article on modern Welsh nicknames.
Welsh surnames revival
With the modern revival of Welsh nationalism, some people have reverted to the old patronymic system and are calling themselves by names such as Rhun ap Iorwerth, current leader of Plaid Cymru. Note that ‘ap’ is correct – and not ‘ab’ – because of the consonantal ‘y’ sound at the beginning of Iorwerth; lenition again.
However, his wife’s name has been given in the media as Llinos ap Iorwerth, which is Llinos ‘son’ of Iorwerth. Following the patronymic system, a woman should be called the daughter of her father.
Sometimes given middle names are used as surnames, as in the cases of the folk singer and political figure Dafydd Iwan (Dafydd Iwan Jones) and opera singer Bryn Terfel (Bryn Terfel Jones).
Whatever system is used, and whatever criticisms or confusions might be created thereby, there’s no doubt about Welsh creativity in overcoming the rules imposed by times past.
