Welsh male names/nicknames, and swearing in Welsh
Asking this for my boyfriend, who doesn't hang out on LJ much.
This involves a character he's building for a Shadowrun RPG campaign, set in Atlanta around 2070. His character is inspired a wee bit by Ianto from Torchwood, and a lot by our visit to the UK in October, in which we went to South Wales for a few days (as I'd attended a semester of school in Carmarthen lo these many years ago) and he fell in love with the landscape.
He's stuck on figuring out a first name for this character (and leaning towards "Davies" as a last name). The character is Welsh, and is proud enough of his heritage that even if he was born "John Smith," he's probably changed it to something that says Wales. If he'd been in Wales during the mid-20th century, he'd be one of the protesters calling for a return of the Welsh language refusing to acknowledge any sign, even traffic signs, that didn't have Welsh on it (as a Welsh prof of mine once told me).
So: looking for names, nicknames that he'd have his teammates use (a short nickname is so much more convenient to scream in a firefight), and as a bonus any phrases he might use to swear when frustrated, or when insulting someone.
I've done some searches in Google for Welsh names/Welsh nicknames/Welsh oaths/Welsh swearing/Welsh swear words/Welsh curses and found several pages with such things, but the problem is I don't know how accurate they are. And what I remember from going to school is only that I know there were people named Taliesin and Aneirin in school at the same time, which I remembered because we learned a bit about the historic figures they were names after. And they both are a bit too froofy for this character.
At any rate, there's enough misinformation on languages on the intartubes that I'm leery of anything that doesn't explain clearly that it wasn't cobbled together from a bunch of fantasy books or medieval books not relevant to the modern day, or that doesn't explain what time period it covers - names and that were common in the 19th century may not be common in the 20th, for example.
So I'm not looking for pages that could be found on Google, unless you know from your own experience or the experience of someone you trust that they're definitely accurate.
(I may also be putting more effort into this than an RPG of this sort really requires, especially one set in the future when all sorts of things may have changed, but heck, I'm a librarian and making sure information is accurate is kind of what I do. :D)
Thank you!
Edit: Thank you for all your responses! I have to reply later, though, as work fell on top of me this morning and I've got to deal with that first. :)
This involves a character he's building for a Shadowrun RPG campaign, set in Atlanta around 2070. His character is inspired a wee bit by Ianto from Torchwood, and a lot by our visit to the UK in October, in which we went to South Wales for a few days (as I'd attended a semester of school in Carmarthen lo these many years ago) and he fell in love with the landscape.
He's stuck on figuring out a first name for this character (and leaning towards "Davies" as a last name). The character is Welsh, and is proud enough of his heritage that even if he was born "John Smith," he's probably changed it to something that says Wales. If he'd been in Wales during the mid-20th century, he'd be one of the protesters calling for a return of the Welsh language refusing to acknowledge any sign, even traffic signs, that didn't have Welsh on it (as a Welsh prof of mine once told me).
So: looking for names, nicknames that he'd have his teammates use (a short nickname is so much more convenient to scream in a firefight), and as a bonus any phrases he might use to swear when frustrated, or when insulting someone.
I've done some searches in Google for Welsh names/Welsh nicknames/Welsh oaths/Welsh swearing/Welsh swear words/Welsh curses and found several pages with such things, but the problem is I don't know how accurate they are. And what I remember from going to school is only that I know there were people named Taliesin and Aneirin in school at the same time, which I remembered because we learned a bit about the historic figures they were names after. And they both are a bit too froofy for this character.
At any rate, there's enough misinformation on languages on the intartubes that I'm leery of anything that doesn't explain clearly that it wasn't cobbled together from a bunch of fantasy books or medieval books not relevant to the modern day, or that doesn't explain what time period it covers - names and that were common in the 19th century may not be common in the 20th, for example.
So I'm not looking for pages that could be found on Google, unless you know from your own experience or the experience of someone you trust that they're definitely accurate.
(I may also be putting more effort into this than an RPG of this sort really requires, especially one set in the future when all sorts of things may have changed, but heck, I'm a librarian and making sure information is accurate is kind of what I do. :D)
Thank you!
Edit: Thank you for all your responses! I have to reply later, though, as work fell on top of me this morning and I've got to deal with that first. :)