Ancient Welsh Naming System

Prior to the English system of surnames, the Welsh naming system consisted of an individual bearing one given name only.  The child was then identified as either the son of (mab, map, vap, or fab), or the daughter of (verch or ferch) the Welshman accepting responsibility under Welsh law for the child.  The terms given above were mutated in normal speech to "ap" or "ab" for the male, and "vch", "vz" or "ach" for the female.  The terms "eil" or "ail" meaning second in succession when used in a name was sometimes found.  When presented to the tribal group from which the father lived, the male child would be given the names of each earlier male ancestor to six or seven generations.  For example, a child given the name "David" who's father was "Morgan", would become "David ap Morgan".  The child's grandfather (say named "Griffith"), his great-grandfather (say named "Hugh"), his great-great-grandfather (say named "Tudor"), and his great-great-great-grandfather (say named "Rhys") under tribal custom would become "David ap Morgan ap Griffith ap Hugh ap Tudor ap Rhys"!  The new member of this tribe would then be able to recite his name as a patronymic string demonstrating his position within the tribal group.  Before written documentation, this would provide a way each individual could prove his "belonging" to a tribal group.  This was necessary since the tribe was responsible to care and protect each member, and hold them responsible for their inter-tribal activity such as injury or theft.  See past posts for more detail of this cultural organization for the ancient Welsh naming system.

Welsh Adjectives as Names

Welsh names throw most genealogist into a cold sweat. What do they mean? How do you make heads or tails out of them. How do you find your ancestors in such a thorn bush of branches? The page to the right shows a listing of Welsh names as they were recorded in English records of 1301 AD. [The translation is provided by Professor G.R. Boynton, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City] Forty five percent (45%) of the 355 names listed were recorded in the form "Griffith ap Res". An additional 19% were listed as a Welsh birth name associated with a qualifier (adjective) . [For a discussion of these names see "Welsh Names in English Records 1301 AD" and "Welsh Birth Names 1301 AD" at http://thejonessurname.blogspot.com ]

A list of qualifiers (adjectives) are given below, showing how a word used with a birth name often came to be part of the naming system. The word usually followed the birth name, but occasionally it was placed before.

Frequent Welsh qualifiers (adjectives): 1) abad = Abbot, 2) bach = little, 3) coch = red, 4) dew = fat, 5) du = black, 6) fychan = the younger, 7) glas = blue, 8) goch = red, 9) gwyn = white, 10) gwyrdd = green, 11) hen = old, 12) henaf = the elder, 13) hir = tall, 14) ieuaf/ ifanc = younger, 15) ieuanc = young, 16) leiaf = the younger, 17) main = thin, 18) mawr = the great, 19) melyn = yellow, fair, 20) rhudd = red, ruddy, 21) sais = Englishmen, Saeson (pl.), 22) sinobl = red, 23) teneu = the thin, 24) teg = fair, 25) tew = fat, 26) vychan/vaughan (from fychan) = the younger, 27) ychan/ v(f)ychan/ ynfyd = mad! So there you have many of the Welsh terms associated with a Welsh birth name. You can see how a genealogist might go ychan!

Pillar of Eliseg

Claim through lineal descent was a major requirement for those who sought to occupy the land in the mountains and hills of Wales. As early as 850 A.D., Concenn (Cyngen) claimed leadership of his family's lands through direct descent of his great-grandfather Eliseg (Elisedd). [Welsh law allowed heirs to claim "pencenedl" (head of family)to the fourth generation.] Eliseg is believed to have recovered his family's lands, the "kingdom of Provosia" (Powys), from the Anglo-Saxons. Concenn then erected a stone monument, crowned by a cross, apparently over the grave of Eliseg. This monument has come to be called "The Pillar of Eliseg".

During the English Civil War, the cross was broken and thrown down by Puritan fury who seemed to believe it was some sort of Popish idolatry. Re-erected, the "cross" now stands seven to eight feet tall. It is believed to have been originally at least 12-25 feet tall. The inscriptions upon the monument have long been illegible. At least some partial translations have been recorded before its destruction. Written in Latin [Church folks would have written it.] it is recorded by Edward Llwyd:

"Concenn filius Cateli, Cateli filius Brochmail, Brochmail filus Eliseg, Eliseg filuse Cnoillaine, Concenn itaque pronepos Eliseg edificavit hunc lapidem proavo suo Eliseg..."

Translated, this would roughly read: "Concenn was the son of Cattell, Cattell the son of Brohemail, Brohemail the son of Eliseg, Eliseg the son of Guoillaue. Concenn therefor the great-grandson of Eliseg built this stone to his great-grandfather Eliseg..."

Ashley in his book, British Kings & Queens, lists this lineage through Vortigen, who is credited with inviting the Saxons to the island in the first place! [found on p. 151 under "Powys and The Marches".]

Family, family, family; lineage, lineage, lineage; genealogy, genealogy, genealogy; this is the Welsh way.

Sounds to Symbols

It took our human race a few years to get to the point that sounds became symbols, our alphabet. The human voice [sound] represented by something that could be visualized [ a symbol]. Then taking that symbol and turning it back into voice. Who would have thought you could do such a thing?

The Canaanites seemed to have started things off, followed by the Phoenicians, then followed by the early Greeks. A sound expressed...to a symbol written...it had to start sometime. These early writings started with the hard sounds like k, b, p, and t, and it was not until the Greeks came up with the idea of softer sounds [vowels], that things really began to take off. Etruscan, Roman, and Italic alphabet became the foundation. Each generation building upon the past.

The Celtic tongue was spoken. It was taboo to write it down, for the bards and poets had spent their life memorizing the stories and history. They would be out of work if anyone started to write something down! It was the Irish who started first to write their language and keep their history and laws. The impact of the church [Latin] was the main force in this change, but the Celtic tongue was phonetically different. As the Roman world became the Christian world, Latin became the dominate expression in all things except the local tongues (vernacular). As discussed in another post, the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic) had a word for those Celtic tribes who started speaking the Latin. They were called "Walas"!

The Welsh language had this backdrop. Only to be spoken, the poets and bards continued their positions. Consonants dominated. There was even the combination of letters ch, dd, ff, ll, ph, rh, and th which were counted as a single consonant. Vowels softened things down a bit and had both long and short sounds...a, e, i, o, u, w, and y. Other letter combinations like ng and si had their own sounds. Twenty eight letters make up the Welsh alphabet. The English consonants j, k, q, v, x, and z are omitted.

It took the Welsh several centuries before they developed their own alphabet and writing. [Following the Celtic tradition.] Of course the poets had the upper hand, having both the oral traditions and the stories intact. Their poetry is thought to be the earliest written items. [called Y Cynfeirdd] The native Welsh tales (prose) came to be called " The Mabinogion".

It is these Welsh sounds to English symbols that caused all kinds of trouble yet to come.

Welsh Language

Welsh historians begin their history dated 447 A.D. In the earliest recognized accounts, the "Annales Cambriae", it states:

"447 Days as dark as night". [see earlybritishkingodms.com/sources/annales.html]

Dark as night, an interesting beginning to a nation.

It was at this beginning that the tribal groups had made their claims to the land, and had begun their settlement patterns. In their hills and mountains, a branch of the Celtic tongue evolved seeming to concentrate on the bilabial consonants p, b, t, and hard palate sounds k. (the Welsh c) This "Brythonic" branch became the Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Thus Welsh must have been fairly well developed before the emigration to Brittany, from Wales, where the Brythonic tongue took root. Welsh was spoken centuries before it became a written language. [Following the Celtic tradition of oral transmission of history, legends, and family stories.]

To add to the complexity of the language, the Celtic languages had developed a process called "mutation". This was a change of an initial consonant, depending on the character of the preceding word. Thus, depending on the preceding word, the initial consonants of the word that follows will sometimes change. Knowledge of these sound changes [mutations] became important for anyone wishing to understand the sounds and pronunciation of the Welsh. [This was particularly a problem for the English ear recording their sounds in future documents.]

The following is a list of the mutations which need to be recognized:

mutation of B = F and M

mutation of F = B and M

mutation of M= F

mutation of P = B, Mh, and Ph

mutation of T = D, Nh, and Th

L at the beginning of a word always signifies a mutation.

Wow! There you have it. For a discussion of the Welsh language see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language

The Living

As the family groups expanded, their claim to the land became one of the most important aspects of their forming society. What seems to be the fundamental unit of their social organization was the kin-group. In the Irish [earliest Celtic society to form with a written record], this was called the "derefine". This was a 4-generation descent group through the male line of descent.[patrilineal] They would share a common great-grandfather. They held land in common. They were held responsible for the offences of family members. They sought retribution in common for any perceived grievances. Most importantly, anyone to the forth generation had equal claim to the land and its resources! The family groups that settled in the mountains of what was to become Wales, took things a little bit farther back the family tree.

Two articles by Wendy Davies, present this history in great detail. In her article titled "Wales in the Early Middle Ages", Leicester University Press, 1982, and her article titled "Patterns of Power In Early Wales", Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990, she describes the six generation Welsh kindred [cenedl] and the Welsh laws that developed around this society. In this tribal setting, one may be called upon to the 4th cousin to take part in tribal activities. The head of the kin was called pencenedl. You can begin to see how important your identify would be among the various tribal groups. You certainly would not want to help pay for a wedding if you did not belong to the family. Thus, the name you were given at birth, took the names of your father, grandfather, great-grandfather...etc. This name essentially became your Social Security number! The elders of the family would know if you really belong to the tribe by giving your name to the 6th generation.

At birth, each male child born to the cenedl was presented to the tribe. The one claimed to be the father had to accept his fatherhood and give the name of the child. The elders would then accept the child into the tribe, and add the name of the family. Thus, if you where given the name Thomas, and your father was named Peter, you would become Thomas ap Peter, who was the son of David...Thomas ap Peter ap David...so on and so on...until the male descent was completed. Thus your Welsh name would become: Thomas ap Peter ap David ab Owen ap Jevan ap Griffith. Your first cousin may have been David ap Jevan ap David ab Owen ap Jevan ap Griffith. With a bunch of youngins you can begin to see how complex the naming would become to anyone outside the tribe. What a living it would be.