Honest thoughts on Gwawr

This name, meaning “dawn” in Welsh and pronounced “gwour” (rhyming with “hour” - listen here), goes back to a Medieval saint.

What do you think? [name_m]How[/name_m] would people outside of [name_m]Wales[/name_m] and outside of [name_m]Britain[/name_m] react to it?

For me (I don’t live in [name_m]Britain[/name_m]), the sound of the name is harsh to my ears. It’s quite an unusual sound for a name too. I can’t, in all honesty, say I like it, sorry!

My family is from [name_m]Wales[/name_m], so Welsh names are well-loved in my house, but I don’t think it’s overly usable, imo. The spelling looks very awkward to me, and the sound just doesn’t work for me either.

Some Welsh names translate wonderfully into other countries, such as [name_f]Bronwen[/name_f], [name_f]Megan[/name_f], [name_u]Meredith[/name_u], [name_u]Morgan[/name_u], [name_f]Arianwen[/name_f], [name_f]Arwen[/name_f], [name_f]Ceridwen[/name_f], etc. but unfortunately I don’t see one like Gwawr fairing very well. I’m not even sure how usable it would be in [name_m]Wales[/name_m] either.

Well…my first thought is “Gwar” which is a band known to perform heavy metal in sci-fi costumes and spew fake blood (among other things) at the crowds while performing. I don’t know how popular/well known the band actually is world-wide but that’s what pops into my head!

I’m not going to lie, I would assume that was a typo.

As an American it looks and sounds like the name of a troll in a fantasy novel.

My first thought was also the heavy metal band Gwar

It looks like it would not sound very pleasant even if it managed to ever get pronounced properly

I’m British and even within [name_m]Britain[/name_m] I don’t think it’s usable, I’m really sorry. It looks terrible written down, and it doesn’t sound good either. There are so many gorgeous Welsh girl names, but I really don’t think this is one of them.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think it would be usable in the US. It sounds very harsh to my ear. I also would of never guessed the pronunciation would rhyme with hour. My closest guess was similar to growl with an R at the end.

Definitely not usable in the US. On first glance, I would’ve pronounced it grr-WAWR, like a combination of grr and roar. Looks like an onomatopoeia for like a lion-bear in a kid’s book.

I don’t think it works outside of [name_m]Wales[/name_m], both the pronunciation and the spelling are very unapproachable and I can’t imagine a person appreciating the animal-like noises people will make trying to pronounce their name.

Thank you everyone for being honest, it’s very helpful and I really appreciate it. I would never have thought of animal noises, for instance, although oddly enough I do for the very popular Latin equivalent [name_f]Aurora[/name_f]! For me Gwawr is a very ethereal, golden name, just like its meaning - and I like the atypical sound. I understand the points you are raising, however, so I definitely won’t consider this one as a first name.