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Gwenhwyfar
As I mentioned to Lillian, I'm on an Arthurian legend kick today and so my Arthurian-inspired guilty pleasure names have come out to play. One of those GP names is Gwenhwyfar.I realize I could never use this name, but I still love it and keep it in the back of my mind.What do you think of Gwenhwyfar (in a purely GP context)?
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It so deserves to be saved from the GP box and put into the can use in real life one!
I would use it, but I prefer Guinevere at the moment. Guinevere is one of my top names. I have no quarms in using names others may have trouble pronouncing or spelling. And Gwen for short is easy and nice. I just don't like the sound of it as much as Guinevere, because Gwenhwyfar is like Gwen and Jennifer blended, and I'm not into Jennifer at all.
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It's great as a GP because of the Arthurian connection. In real life, it would look like a bizarre mangling of Jennifer, and the poor kid would spend her lifetime spelling out her name.I love Ginevra and Guinevere, though.
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I think it's very beautiful and it's a GP of mine, too. I've written my name as Gwenhwyfar before. I figure Jennifer is close to Guinevere which is close to Gwenhwyfar. I do end up misspelling it sometimes, though. :-/
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I know! Sometimes when I'm writing or typing Gwenhwyfar out, I forget where the 'H' is suppose to go. I'd like to use Guinevere to honour my sister, who is also a Jennifer. :)
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It's nice, there's something very elegant about the way Gwenhwyfar looks. Though I prefer Guinevere... it's just easier.
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Yeah, if I ever wanted to use Gwenhwyfar, I'd go with the anglicised Guinevere (unless, of course, some awesome chance presented itself that would allow me to move to Wales, then I would totally use Gwenhwyfar).Gwenhwyfar is so romantic-looking and its meaning is relatively mysterious... but also unpronounceable by 98% of the population here in the States. :( I could never use Gwenhwyfar for the same reason I could never use another Welsh favourite, Myfanwy. *sniff*
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Depending on where you live in Wales, Gwenhwyfer might still be unpronounceable to a large percentage of the population. It always makes me laugh how some parts of Wales are so fiercely protective of their language, and almost everyone can speak Welsh, but in other parts of the country, no-one at all speaks Welsh, and it's considered a bit quaint, and sort of old-fashioned, if you do!
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I hate that no one here can pronounce anything. It's ridiculous. For that reason there are names that I wouldn't use either just because I think the kid would get tired of having to explain the pronunciation and spelling to everyone.I used to love Myfanwy. I would always name characters that. I would never use it, but I still think it's very pretty.
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Don't like it at all. I prefer Genevieve or Guinevere. The spelling looks silly.
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The spelling looks silly.The spelling is Welsh.
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It still looks silly, sorry, just like Niamh and Caoimhe look silly.

This message was edited 10/11/2007, 9:14 PM

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They only look silly because you don't speak Welsh and Irish. Niamh makes perfect sense in Irish. I personally think Niamh looks much better than Neve.
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Maybe they are fine in Ireland or whatever but I just don't like them. Its my opinion. Some people don't like my kids names (or their spellings) but I really couldn't care less.
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Excuse for saying so, but I think that's a very ethnocentric statement to make.
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I just don't like the spellings thats all. And they werre the only names that came to mind with wierd spellings.

This message was edited 10/11/2007, 9:25 PM

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But that's how the names are spelled in their native languages. Why is it weird?
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I know they are legit spellings, I just don't like them. I prefer Neve and Keeva (or somthing like that, easier to read I guess) I don't have to like them. Its just my opinion.
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It's perfectly fine not to like the names. I just didn't think you should say the spellings were silly when they were the original spellings.If you would have simply said "I prefer Neve and Keeva," I would have been perfectly fine with that.

This message was edited 10/11/2007, 10:05 PM

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Fair enough.
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