Welsh Surnames
It is a standing joke among people who know Wales that there are only a handful of Welsh surnames (last names), consisting primarily of Jones, Evans, Roberts, Thomas, Williams, and Davies. Among English speakers, these last names are clearly derived from first names. Why is that? Why don’t the Welsh have the huge variety of surnames like the English do? The answer lies in the moment that the Welsh switched from the patronymic system of names (Sarah ferch Ronald; Carew ap Daniel) where a child’s name contained a first name, then ‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’, and then their father’s name, to a system where everyone in the family had the same surname. In England, this transition occurred soon after the Norman conquest of 1066. “Before the Norman Conquest of Britain, people did not have hereditary surnames: they were known Read more…
Welsh Surnames
This is Sir Taran ap Deiniol (my son) wearing a full coif and tunic of crocheted mail. The ‘ap’ in his name means ‘son of’ for the Welsh. If he were a girl, the ‘ap’ would become ‘ferch’, meaning ‘daughter of”. Among the Welsh today, the number of surnames are few. In general, if you encounter someone with a first name as a last name, their ancestry may very well be Welsh. In Wales today, Jones, Davies, Evans, Williams, and Thomas are the most common surnames. http://www.genealogymagazine.com/welsh.html The reason for this was that the Welsh adopted the use of true surnames very late–beginning in the 15th century and the process didn’t finish until the 18th. This meant that 1) the use of English names and the Englishization of Wales had fully taken hold and 2) the Church’s use of English baptismal Read more…
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