My peculiar screen name

15 years ago

Just had a thoughtful message from Maryliz, and first let me say that I never even noticed that she had spelled my screen name a little differently. I am not sensitive about it, and often sign "Bmom" myself, because it's a pain to type the whole bloomin' thing. No harm, no offense, don't give it a thought!

Now I am headed off topic...

"Bronwyn" is an old Welsh name not commonly used...we all know "Gwyneth" (also a Welsh name) because of Gwyneth Paltrow, and I suspect it's only a matter of time before somebody named "Bronwyn" becomes a celebrity, and it won't seem rare any more.

Welsh is a lovely, odd, impossible, half-gutteral and half-musical Celtic language. Gwyneth is actually spelled "gwynedd" in older forms...the "dd" has the "th" sound in Welsh. I don't speak the language myself, but Wales runs all through my ancestry. It's still spoken as the first language among many Welsh people. There is an annual festival of Welsh language, music, and poetry every year called the Eisteddfod, in which there are druidic ceremonies, and the winner of the Welsh language epic poetry competition is treated like a rock star. Welsh people are famously musical, and wonderful harmony singers. How can one not be charmed by this! I've added a link to the site in case you find this interesting, and you can see what written Welsh looks like. No one can pronounce these things unless they are native speakers!

And that's more than you ever wanted to know! I never talk about my family or my private life on line, but thought this might be interesting to some of you, since Wales is still not well known even in this increasingly small world, and we all choose such individually meaningful screen names.

Here is a link that might be useful: Welsh National Eisteddfod

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Comments (12)

kec01
15 years ago
And Wales runs through my family tree, too. My granddad was from there and moved to London in the 1930's. Through that line, I have a cousin Gwyneth and I know 2 Bronwyns. You are right, the names and spellings are unusual. Thanks for the extra info - I appreciate it.
jamie_mt
15 years ago
Thanks for the extra info - name origins are always interesting, I think. :-) It never occured to me that your name was unusual though, because as an avid reader, I've seen it in books here and there since I was young for different characters. So it seemed quite "normal" to me that you would have a child/pet named Bronwyn. I've always considered the name quite romantic (probably because I see it most often in romance novels and classics).
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justgotabme
15 years ago
Gosh I read this yesterday. Not sure why I didn't reply. I must have been distracted. I thought it was quite interesting. Mine is pretty much self explanitory and I just guessed you were the Mom of a child named Bronwyn. It's not a name I've heard before, but now that you mention it, it does have a Welsh sound to it. Very melodic.
~Becky
marie26
15 years ago
Until you pointed it out, I was reading it as Browny's Mom. I visited Wales many years ago and the people were so friendly. We really enjoyed that trip.
bronwynsmom
Original Author
15 years ago
So glad you found the Wales thing interesting...I haven't been for many years, and after this thread, am thinking how nice it would be to pay a visit.
Marie, where did you go?

Now I guess I'll go back to thinking about organizing. But we wouldn't be here if we didn't enjoy a little distraction once in a while, would we??
graywings123
15 years ago
I have run across two women named Bronwyn in my life, so I didn't fine it strange at all.
blue_velvet_elvis
15 years ago
I saw the post and wondered what on earth was peculiar about being Bronwyns mom. I thought she was an animal or something.

Does anyone speak Welsh anymore? I'm fairly certain nobody speaks Cornish. That is my mother's families anscestral home, from Perrenuthnoe.
jannie
15 years ago
I personally love the name Bronwyn. Very classy.
brugloverZ9
15 years ago
I too, just thought you had a son named Bronwyns! The spelling was unusual and brought to mind more brownsyn to me...that is why I usually abbreviated it. I didn't want to get the spelling wrong.
Thank you for explaning it though. Interesting that so many members here have similar family trees.
maryliz
15 years ago
How interesting. Thanks for sharing your story, Bronwynsmom. I think it's neat that so many on this forum already recognize the name, or have a Welsh connection themselves.

MaryLiz
bronwynsmom
Original Author
15 years ago
Blue velvet elvis, I am envious of your connection to Cornwall...one of the loveliest places in Britain.

A little more about Bronwyn...it's a girl's name, and is sometimes spelled 'Bronwen.' It means conflicting things, which I love about it...child of the dark one, dark and pure, fair breasted...take your pick.

If you want the real flavor of Wales, go to the link below, turn up your sound (better yet, put on good earphones), choose 'Myfanwy' from the list of samples, and listen to one of the best of the zillions of men's choruses of Wales do what every Welsh person loves to do...sing, full-throated, with feeling and simplicity and harmony, harmony, harmony.

Now stop procrastinating and go organize something!!

Love,
Bmom

Here is a link that might be useful: Morriston Orpheus Choir of Wales
mommabird
15 years ago
I also misread it "brownies mom" and thought you were a Brownie Girl Scout leader!!! I live the name - it sounds so classy and exotic!