I much prefer the original spelling with the ‘e’ instead of a ‘y’, what I’m wondering is how and why the ‘y’ spelling became so popular that it’s how the majority of people (even spell check) think it’s spelled, or prefer to spell it.
I know that sometimes in Welsh the difference between a ‘e’ and a ‘y’ in a name can change the name from feminine to masculine, but I’m not sure that’s the case with [name]Gwendolen[/name]/[name]Gwendolyn[/name], because the difference is at the end of the name, but would Gywneth be considered masculine? I don’t have the best understanding of Welsh naming rules, so I could be completely off.
I’ve tried googling this, but can’t really find much. I know it’s a pretty specific question, but there are a lot of very name knowledgeable people here, so I figured I’d go for it and ask.
[name]TIA[/name]!
Here you go I think this answers your question pretty well – Welsh Names-intro
And here’s a quote specific yo your questions:
“But what about [name]Gwyneth[/name], you ask? Good question. Though it starts with gwyn, [name]Gwyneth[/name] isn’t actually derived from the word gwyn. It’s possibly derived from the word gwynaeth meaning ‘joy; bliss’ or else comes from [name]Gwynedd[/name], a name for [name]North[/name]-west [name]Wales[/name]. It’s kind of like how in English, a catapult has nothing to do with housepets, and how a funeral isn’t generally any fun.”
That was very helpful, thank you. That’s a very neat site, I’ll have to bookmark it.
That’s an interesting link.
For me, it’s all in pronunciation. The “len” ending gives you the same sound you’d have in the beginning of “len-ard”. The “lyn” ending gives you the same sound as in “lynn”. So [name]Gwendolen[/name] or [name]Gwendolyn[/name]. The “lyn” ending sounds better to me. From reading the link, it’d have to be Gwyndolen or [name]Gwyndolyn[/name] for it be a boy’s welsh name. Keeping it [name]Gwendolen[/name] or [name]Gwendolyn[/name] makes it a girl’s welsh name. That’s what I got out of it.
That’s what I took from it too, that the ‘y’ in [name]Gwendolyn[/name] didn’t affect the gender of the name.
To me ‘len’ like in [name]Lenny[/name] or [name]Leonard[/name] is pronounced the same way as [name]Lynn[/name], it’s probably different for different accents. I get what you are saying though.