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[Facts] Gwenabwy
Can anyone tell me anything more about Gwenabwy? It's a Welsh feminine name.The first element is clearly gwyn, "white", and wy is a common suffix in Welsh names, but the second element is puzzling me. Superficially, it looks like ab, the mutated form of ap, "son of", when it precedes a vowel. But this does not make sense in this context.Thanks!
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It could be the element "banw", meaning "woman", compare Myfanwy?
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That's an interesting idea, but wouldn't the b have become mutated as an f, leaving the b in Gwenabwy unexplained?
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https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/GwenafwyWelsh Wikipedia states Gwenabwy and Gwenafwy refers to the same Welsh saint (who also seems to be referred to as St Wenappa, I assume that's a Latinisation), so it's possible they are all different ways of writing the same name. I don't know anything about mutation in Welsh consonants, so I can't speculate why the B is there. But I hope the possible link between Gwenafwy and Gwenabwy is useful to you.

This message was edited 6/18/2016, 11:43 AM

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That is fascinating -- more material for speculation now.
Thanks so much for your help!
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