13th Century Welsh Nicknames   by: Heather Rose Jones (copyright c 1997, all rights reserved) [This article was graciously prepared by Ms. Jones at my request despite the fact that she didn't know me from a hole in the ground. This article remains her property and may only be published, electronically or otherwise with her express permission.]  
A very useful source for studying what the names of ordinary people in 13th century Wales were like is the "Lay Subsidy Roll" of 1292 -- a tax roll, recording each property-owner and their tax due. A copy of the roll for Merionydd, a region of north-western Wales, still survives, and the following discussion is based on the names it contains.  (Williams-Jones, Keith.  The Merioneth Lay Subsidy Roll 1292-3.  Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1976.)
 
Personal nicknames were not, of course, the favorite Welsh method of distinguishing one Dafydd from the next.  Given the strong social emphasis on kinship and descent, it isn't surprising to find patronyms (i.e., nicknames identifying one's father) leading the popularity charts.  (Of the 2300 identifiable men's names in the roll, about 60% have a single patronym as their only "nickname".  E.g. "Madog ap Iorwerth", Madog, son of Iorwerth.)
 
But a substantial number of people bear a personal nickname (or, extremely rarely, more than one).  About a quarter of the names contain a nickname referring to some personal characteristic.  (These nicknames based on personal characteristics outnumber occupational bynames by more than three to one.  In contrast with English names, very few Welsh names of this period have nicknames derived from locations -- only 2% in this sample.)
 
Although a wide variety of personal nicknames were used, a small handful were vastly more popular than the others -- the ten most popular account for 80% of the descriptive nicknames.  These are:
 
Du (black)                            19%
Coch (red)                            18%
Moel (bald)                           16%
Bychan (small or "junior")        8%
Llwyd (brown/gray)                6%
Chwith (left-handed, clumsy)  4%
Crach (scabby)                      4%
Cam (lame)                            2%
Cryg (stammering)                 1%
Mawr (big)                            1%
 
These ten illustrate some of the main themes present in the nicknames: coloring and other characteristics of the hair, size, and physical defects.
 
Nicknames based on color words account for nearly half of the total. In addition to the three mentioned above, we find:
 
 Cethin (swarthy)
 Gwyn (fair, white)
 Melyn (yellow)
 
The next largest thematic group involves non-color references to the head or hair (or lack thereof).  In addition to "moel" mentioned above (which comprises the bulk of the group) there is an assortment of compounds where "pen" (head) is combined with a descriptive word.  These account for another 20% of the nicknames.
 
Penbras (thick-head)
Pengrych (curly-head)
Pengam (wrong-head, "stubborn")
Penarw (rough-head)
Penddu (black-head)
Pengul (narrow-head)
Penteg (pretty-head)
 
There are also two "pen" compounds that don't quite follow this pattern:
 
 Pendafad (sheep-head, perhaps referring to curly hair, but possibly instead "head shepherd")
 Pengloch (literally "head-rock", an idiom for "skull")
 
Other body parts can produce nicknames.  Words for the belly (Cest, Bol) sometimes occur, but the majority of other body-part nicknames refer to the legs, particularly defects related to them.  In addition to the afore-mentioned "cam" (lame), there are several compounds attaching this word to a word for the legs:
 
 Bongam (lame-bottom)
 Bergam (lame-leg, bandy-legged)
 Gargam (lame-leg)
 
A variety of other physical defects come in for comment.  "Crach" (scabby), "Cryg" (stammering), and "Chwith" (left-handed or clumsy -- sorry lefties!) are mentioned above.  We also find:
 
 Crwm (crooked)
 Hagr (ugly)
 Salw (ugly)
 
Between these and the non-head body parts, we account for another 15% or so of the nicknames.  Yet another 12% or so are relatively non-judgemental references to general size and shape:
 
Bychan (small, also used for "junior" if the father has the same
given name)
Cwtta (short)
Bach (small)
Byr (short)
Cul (thin)
Mawr (big)
Hir (tall)
Llydan (wide)
 
We're now left with a very small proportion of the nicknames (about 5%) that fall predominently in three groupings: behavioral characteristics (postitive and negative), age, and animal-nicknames.
 
Among behavioral or moral characteristics, the negative ones, alas, predominate.  We find people called:
 
Rhwth (greedy)
Diofal (careless)
Ffol (foolish)
Poeth (hot)
Gwan (weak)
Gwirion (simple, foolish)
Gwyllt (wild)
Mursen (affected)
Syberw (proud)
 
But a handful of people were known instead by their good qualities:
 
Dwfn (deep)
Gwir (true)
Cefnog (rich)
Ebrwydd (swift)
Hedd (peace)
Llawaiddwy (handy)
Llewych (prosperous)
Pefr (beautiful)
Sant (saintly)
 
Age-based nicknames are often inspired by a father and son having the same given name (see also "bychan" above).
 
 Hen (old)
 Ieuanc (young)
 
Animal-based nicknames are quite rare.  Only a single example of each of the following was found (and some of these are uncertain):
 
Blaidd (wolf)
Ceiliog (cock)
Dyfrgi (otter)
Gafr (goat)
March (horse)
 
For the most part, Welsh nicknames consist of a single word -- either an adjective or a noun. In only about 5% of the nicknames do we find a compound of two words.  Two-thirds of these are noun+adjective compounds, with the noun being a body part ("head" or "leg").  There are a small number of adjective+adjective compounds, where two adjectives that also appear independently as nicknames are used together (e.g. "Moelgoch" bald+red).  An equally small number of noun+noun compounds occur (e.g. "Pendafad" head+sheep).  The remainder consist of the word "gwas" (lad, boy) followed by one of the high-popularity nicknames (e.g. "Gwas Chwith", "the left-handed boy").
 
In general, we see that Welsh nicknames of the 13th century are short, concrete descriptions -- most often of physical appearance.  The majority of the nicknames -- particularly the most popular ones -- seem more calculated to distinguish between people (which John? bald John!) than to give flowery and poetic descriptions of unusual characteristics.  This stands in sharp contrast to some of the nicknames we find in medieval Welsh literature, but it seems to be a good rule of thumb that names in Welsh literature and names in Welsh history have only a small amount of overlap and the one is not a good guide to the other.  This isn't to say that one didn't occasionally run into some rather curious nicknames.  One prominent medieval Welsh poet was recorded as "Gruffudd ab yr Ynad Coch", that is, "Gruffudd, son of the Red Judge", and one wonders at the story behind the name appearing in a genealogy as "Mredyth bydur i hosan" (Meredudd, his hose dirty).  Although I have confined this discussion to the nicknames appearing in one particular document, a more extensive list (although without the statistical context) from a wider time-range can be found in "A List of Epithets from Welsh Pedigrees" by Gwilym Peredur Jones in "The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies", Jan. 1926.