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Friday, August 25, 2006

'-wen' and '-wyn'

Just a little thing that's become a pet peeve of mine - the endings '-wen' and '-wyn' on Welsh names, and the trendiness which is blurring the difference between them.
I only found out the difference this week, but now it is annoying me whenever I see the name Bronwyn for a girl.

A simple rule:

'-wyn' is masculine
'-wen' is feminine

In Welsh these only occur in either masculine or feminine. There is no cross-over.
Therefore:
Bronwyn is masculine
Bronwen is feminine

Confusion is caused because their is an Anglo-Saxon feminine ending of '-wyn'. However, on Welsh names these rule exist.

Therefore someone trying to be trendy and using Bronwyn on a girl is doing the equivalent of calling a girl James or Richard.

Information on this can be found at: http://www.medievalscotland.org/problem/names/branwen.shtml

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