Flag of Wales (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She’s a Welsh heritage name with a chunky, clunky sound.
Thanks to Kara for suggesting Angharad as our Baby Name of the Day.
But how do you say it? It’s the inevitable first question when confronted with the mysterious Angharad.
The point of contention is whether to pronounce the g or not: an HAH rad versus ang HAH rad. Forvo lists both options.
She’s Welsh, and she looms large in legends of various and assorted types:
- Angharad Golden-Hand appears at King Arthur’s Court in the Mabinogion, a collection of traditional Welsh tales including early versions of the Arthurian legends. She falls in love with Peredur in one of the romances.
- An early eighth century ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd married a princess from Brittany. She was likely born Agatha, but became Angharad in her new home.
- A tenth century king of Deheubarth gave the name to a daughter.
- A twelfth century King of Wales had a daughter named Angharad.
- Another thirteenth century Welsh prince had a daughter by the name.
- The Welsh Triads are a collection of poetry and traditional tales dated to the 1200s. One of those stories includes Angharad Ton Felen – Yellow Wave, probably a reference to her hair. She’s one of the Three Lively Maidens. The other two were called Afan and Perwyr.
- A late-seventeenth century and early-eighteenth century Welsh poet answered to the name Angharad James.
All of this makes Angharad a legitimate medieval possibility for a daughter, a heritage choice little changed in centuries.
She’s been embraced by writers hoping to evoke another time, appearing in fantasy tales by Lloyd Alexander, Anne McCaffrey, and Robin McKinley. Perhaps the biggest literary association is Richard Llewellyn’s How Green was My Valley, a 1939 bestseller turned 1941 Hollywood success. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Maureen O’Hara played Angharad in the movie.
Her meaning is translated in various ways: beloved, worthy of love, much loved. Despite the slight differences, it is easy to imagine parents embracing the name for her meaning alone.
She continues to see some use in Wales. There’s Angharad Mary Rees, an actress best remembered for her turn as Demelza on the BBC’s classic Poldark in the 1970s, an adaptation of a series of historical novels. It was quite the sensation – something like Downton Abbey today, I think.
So all of this makes a great case for Angharad, but the question is how would she wear outside of Wales in 2012?
She’s surprisingly nickname rich. Depending on whether or not you embrace the g, there’s Annie, Angie, Anga, Ari, and even the boyish Gary and Harry. But the name doesn’t really require a short form – at three syllables, she’s no more imposing than many names children currently wear without nicknames.
Chances are that most people will be hearing Angharad for the first time when they meet your daughter. She’s never made the US Top 1000, and was given to fewer than 5 girls in the US last year.
In the middle spot, she’d make for a lovely secret. As a given name, if you’re happy to pronounce and explain your child’s name, this is an appealing obscurity, rich with legend and meaning.
I love the Ankaret spelling, and it doesn’t look as medievil but still lovely.
I love the Ankaret variation and seeing how it was used, it makes a lovely more pronunciation proof variant, without looking to medievilish.
Kay pronounces the name “ang-ha-rad,” and I always trust her pronunciations. http://nookofnames.com/2011/08/23/extreme-welsh-names/
The rich history and meaning alone is enough to sell me on this name. I do adore it, but it would be a nightmare for my very Southern family… even if a good bit of our pre-America ancestors were Welsh.
I agree – I’ve only ever heard it said ang-ha-rad.
Names like Corazon, Hart, Kerensa, Lieve, Carys and Angharad are all guilty pleasures of mine. I couldn’t sell any of them to my other half, but I’d love seeing Angharad on some little ones.
The character in the Robin McKinley book is known as Hari (hahr ee, not hair ee). I love the book and character enough to have considered this to go with our Welsh surname, but DH wasn’t interested.
McKinley’s book and character are also among my faves, and as such I’ve considered Angharad (as well as Aerin and Luthe) , but more as a middle than a first.
I think this must be the origin of Anchoret.
It is! Anchoret is an old medieval variant.
I think I like Anchoret even better than Angharad!
Loooooove Anchoret.
And Ankaret! Which sounds so Middle Eastern and exotic, even though British.
so I love both Angharad and Anchoret. I used to prefer Anchoret, it looks very pretty. But I just have so much fun saying Angharad that, yeah, it’s my favorite now. Angharad Fiona or Niamh Angharad are nice combos I think. Kira Angharad would be a little easier for folks, since Niamh is hard to know how to say.
The G is very nasal and sort of mushes into the N and H so it’s all one clunky phoneme. Welsh is a complicated language haha! Basically, the whole name is pronounced using the back of your throat :/ not exactly the cutest name, but I hear it a lot here in North Wales, on little girls who are mostly called Angie.
I would love to meet a little Annie with this name though!
Hi Abby, thanks for covering this one! I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved this name. I like the way it looks, I love the meaning and the history. I don’t know if I could ever use it for my own child- I have no claims to Welsh ancestry and I think it would be a hard sell for my partner. There are as you note pronunciation issues, but I think this name is a lot more intuitive than Caoimhe or Saoirse and some of the Gaelic names. I guess it depends on whether you want slight mispronunciation or people always asking “how do you say that?”
I have to say though Angharad nicknamed Harry is super cute!
I was almost named Angharad. My mum is half-Welsh and she has always loved the name. She opted against it in the end because she worried people (in England) would mangle the pronunciation — saying an-GA-rad, rather than the ang-HA-rad (with a soft palated ‘ng’ and aspirated ‘h’).
To be honest, I’m not sure that I’ve had fewer mangled pronunciations as an Eleanor! If she wanted a pronunciation-problem-proof name, she didn’t quite get it.