Birth Announcements

[purplefog.livejournal.com]

Girls:
Gwenno Leigh
Courtney
Bryony Belle
Holly Mair
Sarah Mari
Maris Non Louise
Jessica Elizabeth
Angharad Skye
Lyra
Lily Rose Fan
Florence Llinos

Boys:
Ruan John
Evan
Karl Ellis Iolo
Beryn Sol Rees
Ieuan
James
James Tomos

Comments

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

I like:

Gwenno Leigh
Courtney
Bryony Belle
Mair
Mari
Louise
Elizabeth
Angharad Skye I have no idea how to pronounce the first name, but it looks awesome.
Lila
Lily Rose

John
Evan
Karl
Ellis
Beryn
James

[babyxdoll.livejournal.com]

I like Bryony & Lyra, their cute and I haven't heard them before. :)

[lalazizara.livejournal.com]

Gwenno?

[lilacmermaid.livejournal.com]

I like:

Leigh
Bryony
Holly
Sarah
Louise
Elizabeth
Lyra
Rose
John
James

[skittles22088.livejournal.com]

I like:
Holly
Jessica
Elizabeth
Skye
Lyra
Lily
Evan

[silas-says.livejournal.com]

I love Holly, Lily and Rose (but I'm not crazy about the double flower name, though it's beautiful), Evan, and James.

[ladydreamfire.livejournal.com]

Bryony Belle was really cute together, I don't like the name on it's own though.

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

Angharad is pretty much pronounced how it's spelled: ang-HA-rad

[purplefog.livejournal.com]

It's very old-fashioned Welsh, from what I can tell: "GWEN-o", with a short 'o' like in 'dog' and 'spot'.

[purplefog.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, the kid called Evan is actually a double namer - Evan Evans!

It's more common than you think around these parts, but again it's a bit of a dated practise.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

Gwenno? Gwen isn't ok as is?
It sounds like guano.

[purplefog.livejournal.com]

In origin and language roots. Gwen means 'blessing', or quite literally in Welsh: 'a smile'. Gwenno means 'blessed'.

It's not as made up as you may think it is.

[aislincalum.livejournal.com]

I almost choked when I saw Gwenno.

[purplefog.livejournal.com]

A lot of people apparently reacted that way. I'm very surprised - when you scan down the list, it does seem likely that some of the names are all from a different culture, even if one is not sure what that culture is.

I have never seen quite such a reaction to a 'foreign' name on an international birth announcement list before! I'm genuinely interested - is it because there are some names in there that are common in English-speaking countries, so people think the others are 'made-up', or butcherings of existing names?

[satunian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't think it was made up. I just said it sounds like guano. And implied that Gwen is ok as is.
If the person has either roots or strong interest in Welsh culture I can understand, but otherwise, you get the same effect with Gwen without being reminded of bat poop.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

I think the reason it looks fake is that there really is no distinct marker in sound or spelling to suggest a specific culture, and rather looks like it just took a fairly common and easily recognized English/American name, Gwen, and added an English/American diminutive, -no, on the end, to the same effect as "kiddo", "boyo", "Steve-o", and they added it on a name that doesn't seemingly match such a suffix.