Category Archives: name

Aneira

Origin and Meaning of Aneira

Aneira is an uncommon feminine name of Welsh origin. The name comes from the word “eira”, meaning “snow”. It is generally pronounced in one of two ways: un-AY-ra; un-EYE-ra.

Aneira from the Welsh word for snow
Aneira from the Welsh word for snow

Popularity of Aneira

The name Aneira is only known to have been in use since the early 1900s. Though it had an increase in commonality over much of the century, it is not listed on the most recent top 100 popular girls’ names in Wales in 2023.

In the United States, the popularity of the name spiked in 2015 but dropped significantly the next year and has not increased again since.

Famous People Named Aneira

Two women of note share this name.

Aneira Thomas was the first baby born in the new National Health Service in the United Kingdom in 1948. She was named after the founder of the NHS, and would later join the medical profession as a nurse.

Aneira Davies is a freelance journalist and copywriter in London, United Kingdom. She specialises in crafts, interiors, and lifestyles and has written for numerous magazines.

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Discover the meaning and popularity of other Welsh girls’ names.

Cranogwen

Origin of the Name Cranogwen

The name Cranogwen is a girl’s name and a bardic Welsh name.

Meaning of Cranogwen

Cranogwen is a unique name that means captive charm, realist, aspirations, narrator, orderly, generous, warmth, to endear, and name for pleasant one.

Popularity

Cranogwen was not in the top 100 baby girls;’ names in Wales in 2018.

People called Cranogwen

Sarah Jane Rees

Sarah Jane Rees was a mariner, a poet, journalist, preacher, and campaigner who was also known as Cranogwen. Born in Llangranng in Cardiganshire. Rees lived from 1839 to 1916. Rees was born the daughter of John Rees, a mariner. Ms. Reeves was a progressive girl who preferred accompanying her father on sea mariner trips than taking class sewing and cooking. Rees was educated by an old schoolmate named Hugh Davies who has taught her astronomy and Latin. Ms. Rees received a masters degree in ship navigation. After Sarah Rees completed her formal education, she started her own navigation school in 1859. Rees has published poems.

Saint Cranogwen

Cranogwen is a version of St. Carragnnog after a saint who the town of Llranng in Wales.

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Deryn

Meaning and Origin of the Name Deryn

Deryn the Welsh word for a bird
Aderyn the Welsh word for a bird

The name Deryn is a two-syllable unisex name. The meaning of Deryn is derived from the Welsh word “aderyn,” which means bird.

Popularity

While the name has been around since the early 1900s, it has never seen a particular surge in popularity. It has remained a fairly rare name with the popularity of Deryn not placing it in the rankings of the 100 most popular baby girls’ names in Wales in 2017.

Famous People with the Name Deryn

There have been several individuals of note with the name Deryn. Among them is the noted Anglo-Welsh poet Deryn Rees-Jones; she has produced a number of poetry books, is a professor of poetry at Liverpool University, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2012 for “Burying the Wren.”

Another notable usage of the name is in the world of fiction. Deryn Sharp is a central figure in Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan trilogy which consists of the books Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath.

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Lona

Meaning and Origin of the Name Lona


The name Lona actually has several meanings. In Welsh, it is derived from “Maelona”, meaning “prince”. Another Welsh interpretation of the name comes from Ionawr the Welsh word for January.

In Spanish, it means “canvas”. In Cherokee, it means “woman alone”. In Hungarian, it means “light”.

In urban slang, the meaning of Lona refers to a woman or girl who seems to be sweet and easygoing on the surface but it’s actually contrary to her true nature.

Popularity

The popularity of Lona is not currently very high on either the U.S. or the U.K. list.it was quite low on the Wales list in 2017 and is currently about number 997 on the U.S. list. In fact, we’ve only been able to find two celebrities who have ever shared this name.

Famous People with the Name Lona

Lona Williams is a U.S. actress and writer. She is most famous for being a writing assistant and occasionally lending her voice to The Simpsons.

Lona Cohen, a.k.a. Helen Kroger was a Soviet spy and snuck A-bomb diagrams out of Los Alamos during World War II. She was married to fellow spy Morris Cohen. She passed on in
1991.

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Aerona

Meaning and Origin of the Name Aerona

The meaning of Aerona may be simple as Aerona comes from the name Aeron, which is a male and female name that means berry.

Aerona is also said to having the meaning Celtic goddess.

How to pronunce Aerona?

The pronunciation of Aerona is pretty easy to understand by seeing the name and it is simply Ae-ro-na. The name Aerona is similar to such names as Aeronwen and Aeronwy.

Famous People and Popularity of the Name

Aerona is not a common name and that shows when it was not included in the top 100 baby names in Wales when the stats were gathered in 2017. The popularity of Aerona is not very great at all despite it being a beautiful name and one of the few notable people who has the name Aerona is the mother of a famous newsreader. Huw Edwards is a well-known BBC newsreader and his mother’s full name is Aerona Protheroe.

Aerona is also the name of dental software.

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Shân

Origin of the Name Shân

The name Shân is a girl’s name of Gaelic and Welsh origin.

Shân can also be spelt as Siân (which is a more common spelling in Welsh)

Meaning of Shân

The meaning of Shân is God’s gracious gift. Shân is a Welsh feminine form of the male name John. Shân is a form of Sian. People pronounce Sian and Shân, Shahn.

Popularity of Shân

Last year and this year, the popularity of Shân did not make it into the United Kingdom’s top 100.

Famous People with the Name

Shân Wareing

Professor Shân Wareing is employed as CEO and Deputy Vice Chancellor at London Southbank University.

Shân Legge-Bourke

Honorable Dame Shân Legge-Bourke was born on September 10, 1943, the daughter and the only child of Wilfred Bailey, 3rd Baron Glanusk . Dame Shân Legge-Bourke was 2nd Lord Lieutenant of Powys. Dame Shân Legge-Bourke’s older daughter was once nanny to Princes William and Harry.

Shân Cothi

Shân Cothi was born the daughter of a blacksmith in the small town of Ffarmers in Carmarthenshire. She is known as a Welsh classic singer and actress.

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The girl’s name Sian

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Betrys

Meaning and Origin of the Name Betrys

The name Betrys is not that popular in Welsh culture. We will be discussing the name Betrys, it’s popularity, meaning and the pronunciation of the word.

The meaning of Betrys can be derived from the origin of the word. The word Betrys is actually a Welsh form of Beatrice which is actually the Italian form of the word Beatrix. She was the woman that was loved by the Italian poet Dante. She was a character in Shakespeare’s novel and is a much-reputed character.

Popularity

The popularity of Betrys as a name is not much at the moment. The name was not in the top 100 girls’ names in Wales in 2017.

It is average in Canada, on the rise in England and Wales, fairly popular in France, Romania, and Italy. It is also popular in the United States. Betrys can be a good choice for naming your newborn daughter and is honestly a quite unique name.

Pronunciation

Betrys pronunciation is a bit tricky. The name Betrys can be pronounced as Bet-rees.

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Eirianwen

Meaning and Origin of the Name Eirianwen

More than ever, parents are finding the beauty in Welsh names, and naming their children following the cultural conventions.

The meaning of Eirianwen comes from the combined two Welsh words. It is derived from the words eirian, and gwen. Eirian means bright, or shining. Gwen means white, holy, and pure.

The name Eirianwen also can mean shining white. A variant is Eirianedd, and its modern equivalent is Arian.

Popularity

The popularity of Eirianwen did not reach the 100 most popular baby girls’ names in Wales in 2018 following the latest statistics from the government. Prior to that, a census done in 2016, the name did not reach the top 2000, either.

How to pronunce the Name Eirianwen?

The pronunciation of Eirianwen is “ay ree on wen,” with emphasis on the “on.” It is a rare, and unusual name for young girls; not many adults are named it, either.

Famous People with the Name

One particular woman with the name is Eirianwen Morris Jones, a Mid Wales celebrity journalist column writer.

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Owena

Owena Name Meaning and Origin

The name Owena has Welsh origins. It is the female version of the male name Owen, which also has Welsh origins. The name Owena means someone of noble birth, noble born, or well born.

The meaning of Owena can also mean young fighter or warrior. Traditionally, the name was probably reserved for Welsh nobility before it became used more often by the everyday person as a baby name pick.

Popularity of the Name

The popularity of Owena is not very high. It did not make it on the list of the top one hundred 2017 popular baby girl names in Wales.

People with the Name Owena

Although the name isn’t that common, there are still several notable people and things named Owena. There is the American actress Owena Wolcott, whose stage name was Ona Munson. Owena or Ona started her theatrical career on Broadway. She was most well-known for her movie role as Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind. There is a river in Nigeria called the river Owena.

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Goewyn

Meaning and Origin of the Name Goewyn

For anyone looking for a different type of name that is not popular, the name Goewyn is a great consideration to name your baby girl. This name actually is used mainly in Welsh speaking countries, but only to a limited extent.

The meaning of Goewyn is known as ‘sprightly‘, and not many people carry this name.

Popularity of the Name

Goewyn was not in the top 100 baby girls’ names in Wales in 2017 (according to the Office of National Statistics).

Likewise in the United Stated the popularity of Goewyn is very slim, and there was no popularity data on this specific name.

Famous Goewyns

As you can imaging there are not too many famous people with this name. The only reference we’ve been able to find of the name Geowyn is from Welsh literature on Celtic Heathendom where Geowyn was a lovely damsel.

There was also a race horse with the name, Bryn Carregwen Goewyn being trainned in Langley.

Why choose the name Goewyn?

The popularity of Goewyn is slim so if this is something you are looking for, this is the perfect name to choose. Girls that are born with this name tend to be very friendly, and they carry an affectionate nature towards others. They enjoy the company of others, and love to work with others and organise.

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Discover the meaning and popularity of other Welsh girls’ names.