#cornish names

Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com Origin: Cornish Meaning: “love; charity.” Gender: feminine Pron: kə-REN-zə. The name comes directly from the Welsh word for “love; charity.” It came into use in the 19th-century when an interest in reviving Cornish became popular in Cornwall. An Anglicized spelling is…

Photo by Andrew Wilus on Pexels.com

Origin: Cornish

Meaning: “happiness; bliss; joy.”

Gender: feminine

loh-WEN-ah

The name comes directly from the Cornish noun meaning “happiness; bliss; joy.”

It is sometimes spelled Lowenna to reflect the true pronunciation.

Sources

https://www.behindthename.com/name/lowenna/submitted

https://www.cornwalllive.com/whats-on/family-kids/most-popular-baby-names-…

I'm doing some research on the human names of my OCs and I found something interesting about Wales and Cornwall.

Cornwall's modern human name is Trystan Nancarrow, though he mostly uses the variant Tristan when communicating with non-Cornish speakers. The surname Nancarrow is open to revision, I originally had Knowles but didn't discover it wasn't a Cornish name until now. Nancarrow means the "valley of the deer", I have this headcanon that Cornwall befriended a white stag from the Otherworld when he was younger. (tentative headcanon ahoy!) 

Of course I'm considering multiple names because over time, the human name a nation carries can get outdated and cause the nation to stick out like a sore thumb among their people. So I do think they change their names over time. Sometimes they take a name in recognition of a notable historical character which they want to commemorate and other times they take a name that's popular and fits them. Well, it's a different story for every nation.

So while Nancarrow isn't completely set in stone, I'm considering these surnames as well: Penberthy (but since lythweird's Cornwall already has it, I'm not going to take it. It wouldn't be fair. I just put it on my list because I find it pretty) Penhale Penhallow Penrose Roscarrock Rosewarne Trevelyan Tremayne (town built with stone) Trewartha Vyvyn (alive)   

But now to Cornwall's first name, Trystan. The name comes from the Brythonic/Latin name Drustanus which became the Celtic name Drystan. In the Middle Ages, the name may have changed to Tristram when Cornwall was being Anglicised by England and was modernized to Tristan. With interest in his culture reviving, Cornwall turned Tristan to Trystan in the last century. Now the name has a Brythonic origin but is mostly considered as a Welsh name. However, one very famous Cornish knight was called Tristram, from the story Tristram and Iseult which was recorded by the Welsh. (modern Tristan and Isolde) Also, Cornwall was once known as West Wales. So giving Cornwall the name Trystan firmly cements the close relationship Cornwall and Wales share.

I still have a lot work to do on Wales' human name, but for now I've settled on the name Mael Evans. I picked the name "Mael" firstly because I liked it, but then I discovered a lot of connections that this name raises. It is originally Celtic, meaning "prince", but I found that Mael is very popular in Brittany and France today as well. The relationship between Brittany and Wales is already evident, they're both Brythonic and they're close siblings. But with France? Well, France is a mixture of Roman, Gaulish and Frankish blood so he's a bit related with Wales. (perhaps distant cousin) What is funny is the name France uses for Wales: Pays des Galles. That means "Land of the Gauls". Thus, France is linguistically acknowledging Wales' Celtic identity, though I don't understand why the French mixed the Britons up with the Gauls. It seems a bit odd, but I stil feel that Mael fits Wales rather well, especially with the name being so popular in France and Brittany today.