Skip to main content

Baby Girls With "-wyn" or "-son" Ending Names

A note on male suffixes thoroughly ignored: For goodness sake, please don’t add “-wyn” or “-son” to any girl’s names, because both “-wyn” and “-son” suffixes are for males. The "-son" suffix literally means "son," as in "son of [insert male name here]" and you typically see "-son" in traditional surnames. It is the difference between a Julia and a Julian, a Naoki and a Naoko, a Carole and a Caroll. Most of us can’t help but fall in love with some Welsh and English names, such as Bronwyn and Madison (and Madison has been completely taken over by Team Pink) but understanding and researching a name you’re interested in makes all the difference in the world. You should have an interest beyond “what sounds good,” and delve deeper into meaning, suffix/gender, associations good or bad, namesakes and origin. And yes, even Gwyn is masculine, used for boys in Wales, where the suffixes "-wyn" and "-wen" come from.


In my personal opinion, the only way using a "-son" name is justified is by naming a baby girl after a beloved male relative, better in the middle spot (and NOT when there are feminine variants of that male name available - in other words, don't name her Jamison instead of Jamie, the female variant of James).


Check out this post for more details: http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2011/7/the-name-that-launched-a-thousand-female-sons

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Galician Baby Names

I grew up on a street that was named an Italian variant of Roger. When I got married and we bought our first house, it turned out to be on Roger Street. Once noting that coincidence, I started searching for other variants of the name. However, female variants turned out to be pretty nonexistent. Save for Roxeria, which I later discovered was the Galician female form, possibly pronounced rohz-AIR-ee-uh. That led me to a few lists of female Galician names, ranging from common to rare. Here is a sampling of names not often heard here in the states... Albina Alda Alma Alodia Aloia Amada Amadora Amalia Amparo Anisia Antia Araceli Aranzazu Artemisa Avelina Azucena Baia Balbina Baltasara Beatriz Benvida Berenice Bieita Branca Braulia Caetana Carola Casilda Casimira Ceferina Celsa Cipriana Cira Clorinda Coralia Cornelia Cosima Davinia Delfina Desideria Dionisia Dominga Dorinda Dorotea Dositea Edelmira Edenia Elba Elvira Emiliana Etelvina ...

Elowen

Elowen is a recent Cornish baby name meaning "elm." It may not take off in America like the last Cornish hit, Jennifer, but it's certainly pretty. She's part of a "linguistic revival," as Appellation Mountain puts it  here . Her nickname could be Ellie, Elle or Ella, or a more unusual choice, Wendy. The pronunciation of Elowen is "ell-LOH-en," though most Americans will probably stick with "ELL-oh-wen." Please note that it is not spelled Elowyn. There is a similar name, Eowyn, but if you spell it Elowyn it will no longer be the Cornish name meaning elm tree, just some creative name. Other great Cornish names include Penrose, Chesten (the Cornish form of Christine), Demelza, Denzel, Hammitt, Kerensa/Kerenza, Meraud (very similar to French gem name Emeraude, both meaning emerald, but Meraud is pronounced "meh-row"), Merryn, Morwenna, Tremain, Emblyn, Jory, Massen, Treeve and Cotton. Here's 's a link to a post on Cornish n...

Massimo

Today's name: Massimo (male) Pronunciation: MAH-see-moh Potential nicknames: Masi, Simo, Max Origin: Along with Massimiliano, Massimo is the Italian variant of the Latin name Maximilian (which was the name of three Roman emperors and a few saints), meaning "greatest." Popularity: Massimo did not rank on the top 1000 baby names in 2010, but there were 148 baby boys born named Massimo and 5 named Massimiliano. In 2011 there were 107 named Massimo. Fun fact: (1) The name Maksim is also a variant of Maximilian. (2) Massimo has been the surname of many powerful Roman families. (3) Saint Massimo, a 5th century bishop. (4) Massimo D'Alema, Italian Prime Minister. (5) Massimo Capra, Canadian celebrity chef. .