The ancient Welsh
patronymic naming system can cause significant problems for genealogists. Patronymics describes the process of giving a male child the father's given, or forename, as a surname. This means that a family's name changes in successive generations.
Such names are not uncommon in modern day Wales, with BBC Wales correspondents Iolo ap Dafydd (above) and Rhun ap Iorwerth being well-known examples.
But the process of conversion to the system of fixed surnames in Wales began in the fifteenth century and continued through to the middle of the eighteenth century. The trend was stratified socially - the higher classes in society began the process, which then was passed on to the lower classes.
Consequently, genealogists whose search has reached this period in Welsh history can sometimes find that their search grinds to a halt as family names 'disappear' into the patronymic system of naming.
The Welsh patronymic system describes family trees in terms of the male line only and records the family association in the 'ap' or 'ab' prefix - 'ap' is a contraction of the Welsh word mab, which means son. So, Rhys ap Dafydd means, in English, Rhys son of David.
Modern Welsh surnames such as Powell, Price and Prichard are the result of this contraction and a progressive tendency to Anglicise Welsh names: under the patronymic system they would have been ap Hywel; ap Rhys and ap Richard. The names Bowen and Bevan were derived in the same way.
Women's names sometimes entered the patronymic system using the 'ferch' (daughter of) prefix. So, Rhiannon ferch Dafydd ap Iorwerth would be Rhiannon, daughter of David, son of Edward. When they married, women usually kept their maiden names as there was no surname for them to adopt.
The range of Welsh surnames is very small, due in part to this drawn-out process of conversion, but also because of the growing tendency to adopt English forenames (usually taken from Christian saints), particularly in towns like Hereford on the Welsh borders. Names such as John, William, David, Thomas and Hugh, became Jones, Williams, Davis, Thomas and Hughes.
In north Wales, place names were frequently adopted, and in mid Wales families adopted nicknames for surnames. Jenkins is possibly derived from two different sources: as a corruption of a Flemish version of John, and as a result of the popularity of the name Ieuan in Wales during this period. Ieuan also gave rise to Evan(s) and Jones.
The way in which official records of births, marriages and deaths were kept also complicates the issue. The Act of Union (1536) stated that all official documentation in Wales was to be carried out in the English language. This meant that Welsh names were registered in an anglicised form. The process of civil registration in 1837 completed the long transition to fixed surnames.
The traffic was not all one-way, though. The names of Welshmen who migrated to England were often transposed into English, so Ddu became Dee, and Caradog became Craddock.
your comments
Albert Roberts, Spain (originally Sussex)
Regarding surnames being shortened, changed and spelt in different ways ... I have been searching in genealogy and family trees for over 50 years, before I retired to Spain. Names have changed over the years, simply that whenever people went to a Baptism, Burial or wedding, if they could not read or write their name the Vicar or Clerk would enter it has they heard it. Take a Cockney in Somerset - if he gives his name as (H)Arris with out the H, this means another surname is made. My own name Roberts has been entered as Robberts, Robartes, Robbartes, Ribbits and even as Rabbits. I know that Roberts is a common enough surname, but I do not think that Rabbits was the cause of this.
Colin Radmore, Newport
I was raised in Newport from 1936 to 1944. I went to Bolt Street boys school. I lived on Dolphin street.
Gareth Howell
Cadwallon was the very earliest of Welsh kings, in the 5th century AD, from which ancestor, those called Cadwallader get their name, of great antiquity.
Anthony B.Gwinnutt
I am 75 years old and now live on Alderney, Channel Island, as I came over to do some pluming for two weeks but I decided to stay for 1967 and as far as I know I am the only Gwinnutt in the Channel Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney.
David W Cadwallader
I believe my surname was originally used as a first name, but how did it start anyway?
Howard Wayne Roberts in Ystrad Mynach
I think it is very misleading to suggest that all surnames that derive from possible Patronymics are of Welsh origin*. The Normans used Patronymics as Fitz. In respect of my own family, they lived in Bristol for 500 years going back to Shropshire in the early 1400s (according to the Visitations of Gloucestershire)- there isn't a Patronymic in sight.
I have found De Robart as a fixed surname in early records in Devon and the Norman Goodhurst Roberts family of Kent, that decided to use Roberts as a surname. Also the many Huguenot Robert families and Robert Channel Islands that no doubt became Roberts over time. There is also a tribe that became Roberts in Scotland, but all I want to highlight is that this generalising is very misleading for many family researchers.
After taking part in a Y -chromosome DNA test (passed down almost unchanged from father to son) most of my surname matches are Scottish. Roberts in Scotland is a Sept of Clan Donnachaidh (children of Duncan) aka Clan Robertson, and I share a common ancestor with Robertsons, Reids (once Reid-Robertson, Gaelic for red haired Robertsons) and Duncans. It seems that my family left Scotland at a very early date. In some ways it also supports the definition of the Roberts surname given in the second part of the meaning here:-
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mroberts/meaning.htm. DNA results for Roberts families of Welsh origins are also showing unusual results, and don't appear to relate to other Welsh patronymics as might be expected.
(*Editor's Note: We don't suggest all patronymics are Welsh in origin - the Scottish Mac/Mc, Irish O' and East European vitch/wicz are other well known examples)
