Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fine Radnorshire Names

I've already posted about the young gypsy harpist Fred Melenydd Roberts, and of course that name Melenydd derives from the old cantref of Maelienydd that covered what is now Northern Radnorshire.

Anyway young Fred is not the only infant to have been landed with a forename based on the geography of the county. There are a few individuals who've been christened Radnor, one example would be Radnor Morgan born in Hendon in 1913. I wonder if Ithon Jones born in Corwen in 1901 had any Radnorshire connections or did his parents just like rivers? While the opening of the Claerwen reservoir made that particular river name a fairly popular girl's monicker with Claerwen Gibson-Watt, born in 1952, giving a lead.

The best Radnorshire name of all turns up in County Durham in 1982, boy or girl I don't know, but Rhayader Blues is certainly a name that stands out from the crowd.

NOTE: this post was commisioned on behalf of regular reader Mr Maldwyn Beaks, who was getting fed up checking the blog and finding nothing new. Get well soon Maldwyn.

No comments: