Welsh surnames are the family names that came out of Wales’s old patronymic system, and the most common are Jones, Williams, Davies, Thomas and Evans. In 1813 to 1837 the ten most common surnames in Wales covered 55.85 per cent of the people marrying there, against 5.15 per cent in England, according to a survey of every parish marriage register in Wales by John and Sheila Rowlands. Below are 100 Welsh surnames with their Welsh roots, meanings and where they are common today, including the ap names that turned into Price, Powell and Bowen.
This guide is part of our Scottish Names collection. Browse the Scottish Names directory for A to Z surnames and first names, or start with our guide to Welsh first names, because almost every Welsh surname began as one.
This is for anyone with a Jones, a Price or a Vaughan in the family tree who wants to know what the name means, for family historians hitting the famous Welsh brick wall, and for the curious who have noticed that half a rugby team can share a surname. Every name below has its Welsh root, its meaning, how it was made and the best counts we could find, from the 1881 census to Scotland’s 2025 registers and the 2010 US census.
A wee bit of context. Until the 16th century most people in Wales had no fixed surname at all. A man was known by his own name plus his father’s, joined by ap or ab, son of: Evan ap Thomas, whose son John would be John ab Evan. When fixed surnames arrived, a small set of fathers’ first names became a small set of family names, and that is why Wales has so few of them.
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Welsh surname origin checker
Type a surname to see its Welsh root, what it means and where it is common today. 100 Welsh surnames, filtered by how they were made and how common they are. Gold edges mark the ap and ab names.
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What are the most common Welsh surnames?
Jones, Williams, Davies, Thomas and Evans, in that order or close to it, for the last two centuries. The table puts three counts side by side: the share of each name in the Rowlands survey of Welsh marriages from 1813 to 1837, published in Nomina 29; the 1986 count from the six BT phone directories for Wales, tabulated by Michael Williams and reproduced by the Guild of One-Name Studies; and the number of people with the name in England and Wales in the 1881 census, from Who Do You Think You Are? magazine.
| Surname | Share in Wales, 1813 to 1837 | Rank in Wales, 1986 | 1986 directory entries (thousands) | England and Wales, 1881 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jones | 13.84% | #1 | 60.57 | 337,940 |
| Williams | 8.91% | #2 | 37.81 | 213,957 |
| Davies | 7.09% | #3 | 36.76 | 152,045 |
| Thomas | 5.70% | #5 | 22.97 | 123,177 |
| Evans | 5.46% | #4 | 24.66 | 130,294 |
| Roberts | 3.69% | #6 | 17.14 | 111,710 |
| Hughes | 2.98% | #7 | 13.38 | 83,571 |
| Lewis | 2.97% | #8 | 12.96 | 78,457 |
| Morgan | 2.63% | #9 | 11.70 | not listed |
| Griffiths | 2.58% | #10 | 10.90 | 48,883 |
The order barely moved in 150 years. The one-name study notes that the top ten in 1986 were the same names as in 1813 to 1837 and in the same order, except that Thomas sat just ahead of Evans in the earlier period. Smith, the top name in England, would have been 13th in Wales in 1986 if English-language names had been counted.
Why do so many Welsh people share the same surname?
Because the surname came from a father’s first name, and Wales used a small set of first names. The Wikipedia article on Welsh surnames explains that fixed surnames spread among the gentry in the reign of Henry VIII and only slowly among everyone else; in some rural areas patronymics were used until the early 19th century. The baptism registers introduced in 1813 had a column for the family’s surname, which pushed many families to pick one.
- The stock of first names was small. After the Reformation fewer baptismal names were in use, so thousands of unrelated men called John produced thousands of unrelated Joneses.
- The same name, many families. Two people called Jones in the same village are not necessarily related at all, which is the brick wall every Welsh family historian hits.
- Double-barrelled names were the fix. From the 19th century families added a house, parish or mother’s surname to stand out, which is where names like Griffith-Jones come from.
- Bible names left a mark. Rowlands found surnames from Old Testament names, such as Elias and Samuel, held by around 3 per cent of people across south Wales, and links them to the Baptists and Independents.
The joke writes itself. It is not unusual for five or more of the Wales rugby team to be called Jones, and Wikipedia lists eight Joneses who played in the same era without being closely related. A study for the Welsh Government found that about 718,000 people in Wales, nearly 35 per cent, have a family name of Welsh origin.
How ap and ab turned into Price, Powell and Bowen
Ap (son of) is used before a consonant and ab before a vowel. When a patronymic froze into a surname, the ap sometimes stuck to the front of the father’s name and wore down to a single letter. That is why so many Welsh surnames start with P or B.
| Patronymic | Meaning | Surnames it became |
|---|---|---|
| ap Rhys | son of Rhys | Price, Pryce, Preece, Breese |
| ap Hywel | son of Hywel | Powell |
| ap Harri | son of Harry | Parry |
| ap Huw | son of Hugh | Pugh |
| ap Rhisiart | son of Richard | Pritchard |
| ap Robert | son of Robert | Probert |
| ap Rhosier | son of Roger | Prosser |
| ap Rhydderch | son of Rhydderch | Prothero |
| ap John | son of John | Upjohn |
| ab Owain | son of Owen | Bowen |
| ab Ifan | son of Evan | Bevan |
| ab Einion | son of Einion | Beynon |
Where they are found matters too. Rowlands mapped the ap and ab names together and found them heaviest in the border counties of Brecon and Radnor, where as many as 30 per cent of people carried one. Price is the classic example: in the 1881 census it was 38.2 times more common in Radnorshire than the British average.
Scotland did the same thing with Mac, as our guide to Gaelic last names explains, and the Norse world did it with -son, which you can see in our Viking surnames list. Wales is the one that dropped the son-of word into the surname itself.
The five ways a Welsh surname was made
| Type | How it works | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Patronymic -s | Father’s first name plus the English possessive s | Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans, Roberts |
| ap or ab | The Welsh son of word fused onto the name | Price, Powell, Pugh, Bowen, Bevan |
| First name used as is | The father’s name with nothing added | Thomas, Morgan, Owen, Rees, Meredith |
| Nickname | A description of the first bearer | Lloyd (grey), Vaughan (younger), Gough (red), Wynne (fair) |
| Place name | Where the family came from or lived | Mostyn, Havard, Conway, Powys, Pennant |
Job names are the oddity. Robert Fowkes, writing in the journal Names, counted only about a score of significant Welsh occupational surnames, a tiny number next to the Smiths, Taylors and Wrights of England.
Welsh surnames worth knowing
Jones
Meaning: son of John. Welsh root: ap Siôn. Type: patronymic -s. Wales 1986: #1. England and Wales 1881: 337,940.
Jones is John’s son: the personal name Jone, a form of John, plus the English -s, standing in for the Welsh ap Siôn. It is the most common surname in Wales, and the Wikipedia article puts it among the three most common there. In Scotland 382 people with the name were registered in 2025, and it is 5th in the United States.
Williams
Meaning: son of William. Welsh root: ap Gwilym. Type: patronymic -s. Wales 1986: #2. England and Wales 1881: 213,957.
Son of William, from the Welsh ap Gwilym. WDYTYA found it especially common in Glamorgan and Caernarfonshire in 1881. In the 2010 US census it was the third most common surname of all, with over 1.6 million people.
Davies
Meaning: son of David. Welsh root: David + -s. Type: patronymic -s. Wales 1986: #3. England and Wales 1881: 152,045.
Son of David. Wikipedia notes it is the eighth most common surname in England, where many people have Welsh ancestry, and that the Davis spelling is far more common in the United States. About a quarter of the Davieses in the 1891 census lived in Glamorgan.
Evans
Meaning: son of Evan (Ifan, a Welsh John). Welsh root: Ifan + -s. Type: patronymic -s. Wales 1986: #4. England and Wales 1881: 130,294.
Son of Evan, from Ifan, a Welsh form of John. Rowlands found it at 17.80 per cent of names in mid Cardiganshire. WDYTYA names John Evans of Waunfawr, born in 1770, who explored America and drew an early map of the Missouri River.
Thomas
Meaning: from the given name Thomas, Aramaic for twin. Welsh root: Thomas. Type: first name. Wales 1986: #5. England and Wales 1881: 123,177.
The Bible name Thomas, from an Aramaic word for twin, used as a surname with nothing added. WDYTYA counted 27,949 Thomases in Glamorgan alone in 1881, plus 10,400 in Carmarthenshire.
Lloyd
Meaning: grey. Welsh root: Llwyd. Type: nickname. Wales 1986: #20. England and Wales 1881: 34,862.
From llwyd, usually translated grey, so the first Lloyd was probably a grey-haired man. Wikipedia notes the double ll gave non-Welsh speakers so much trouble that it also became Floyd. David Lloyd George, Britain’s only Welsh prime minister to date, made it famous.
Price
Meaning: son of Rhys. Welsh root: ap Rhys. Type: ap or ab. Wales 1986: #15. England and Wales 1881: 52,144.
Son of Rhys, from ap Rhys. In the 1881 census its frequency was highest in Radnorshire, 38.2 times the British average, followed by Brecknockshire and Herefordshire, which tells you how far Welsh names spread over the border.
Powell
Meaning: son of Hywel. Welsh root: ap Hywel. Type: ap or ab. Wales 1986: #22. England and Wales 1881: 37,127.
Son of Hywel, from ap Hywel. Wikipedia ties the name to the old royal houses of Wales, from which the Tudors also descended. 37,127 people carried it in England and Wales in 1881.
Bowen
Meaning: son of Owen. Welsh root: ab Owain. Type: ap or ab. Wales 1986: #34. England and Wales 1881: 12,351.
Son of Owen, from ab Owain: the b is what is left of ab, the form used before a vowel. Particularly common in Glamorgan, and the designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen traced his family on Who Do You Think You Are?
Vaughan
Meaning: small, younger. Welsh root: Fychan. Type: nickname. Wales 1986: #45.
From fychan, the softened form of bychan, small. It was used to tell a son from a father with the same name, much like Junior. Its Breton cousin is Bihan, from the same Celtic word.
Wynne
Meaning: white, fair. Welsh root: Gwyn. Type: nickname. Wales 1986: #57. England and Wales 1881: 2,589.
From gwyn, white or fair. Rowlands mapped the two spellings and found a dramatic split: Wynne in the north, 265 against 13, and Gwyn in the south, 180 against 26. It is one of the clearest north and south markers among Welsh surnames.
Meredith
Meaning: from Maredudd. Welsh root: Maredudd. Type: first name. Wales 1986: #49.
From the Welsh personal name Maredudd. Older books treated it as a Herefordshire name, but Rowlands showed its real heartland was Radnorshire, with 2.38 per cent of people in Radnor hundred.
Morgan
Meaning: from Old Welsh Morcant. Welsh root: Morgan. Type: first name. Wales 1986: #9.
From the Old Welsh personal name Morcant. Wikipedia records a powerful Welsh family by about 1330, established by Morgan ap Llewelyn. It was 9th in Wales in 1986 and 141 people with the name were registered in Scotland in 2025.
Tudor
Meaning: from Tudur, from Brittonic Toutorix. Welsh root: Tudur. Type: first name.
From the Welsh Tudur. Owen Tudor, a Welsh courtier who married the widow of Henry V, was the grandfather of Henry VII, so a Welsh name ended up on the English throne.
Havard
Meaning: probably from Haverfordwest. Welsh root: Haverfordwest. Type: place. Wales 1986: #85. England and Wales 1881: 774.
Thought to be a place name from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, which makes it one of the few Welsh surnames tied to a town. It was more common in south and mid Wales, with 774 people in England and Wales in 1881.
Games
Meaning: from cam, one-eyed or cross-eyed. Welsh root: Gam. Type: nickname.
From cam, one-eyed or cross-eyed, as in Dafydd Gam, the Welsh soldier who opposed Owain Glyndwr and died at Agincourt in 1415. The soft mutation turned cam into gam, and the English -s did the rest.
Where Welsh surnames are common: north, south and the border
Wales may have few surnames, but Rowlands showed they are not spread evenly, which is good news for family historians. The mix of names in a parish register can point to a district, and they used it to find where emigrant families came from.
| Surname | Where it clusters (1813 to 1837) |
|---|---|
| Jones | 30.71% of names around Bala (Penllyn); only 1.06% around St Davids (Dewisland) |
| John | Outnumbers Jones in five Pembrokeshire hundreds |
| Roberts | Up to 14.87% across north Wales, scarce in mid and south Wales |
| Jenkins | Almost wholly southern: 5.89% in Glamorgan, 5.19% in Cardiganshire |
| Evans | 17.80% in mid Cardiganshire, 10.89% in north Montgomeryshire |
| Meredith | 2.38% in Radnor hundred, its real heartland |
| Pritchard, Parry | Marked presence in Caernarfonshire |
| ap and ab names | Up to 30% of people in Brecon and Radnor |
Welsh surnames in Scotland and America today
Welsh names travelled. In Scotland’s 2025 registers of births, marriages and deaths, the National Records of Scotland counted Jones 382 times, Hughes 319 and Williams 251, so Jones now sits 42nd among all surnames in Scotland. In the 2010 US census, Williams was 3rd and Jones 5th, each with more than 1.4 million people.
| Surname | Scotland 2025 (records) | Rank in Scotland | US rank 2010 | People in the US, 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jones | 382 | 42 | #5 | 1,425,470 |
| Hughes | 319 | 55 | #90 | 236,271 |
| Williams | 251 | 73 (tied) | #3 | 1,625,252 |
| Thomas | 171 | 125 (tied) | #16 | 756,142 |
| Davies | 166 | 135 (tied) | #1,030 | 33,753 |
| Evans | 158 | 144 | #53 | 355,593 |
| Morgan | 141 | 168 | #69 | 286,280 |
| Lewis | 137 | 170 (tied) | #29 | 531,781 |
| Price | 62 | 432 (tied) | #91 | 235,251 |
| Powell | 49 | 532 (tied) | #101 | 224,874 |
| Lloyd | 43 | 612 (tied) | #522 | 64,202 |
The study for the Welsh Government found 16.3 million people with a Welsh-origin family name across the countries it covered, with 5.3 per cent of people in the rest of the UK and 3.8 per cent in the United States carrying one. Davies is the odd one out in America: the Davis spelling won there, ranked 8th, while Davies is only 1,030th.
How to trace a Welsh surname
- Start with the place, not the name. A Jones tells you very little, but a Jones from Bala and a Jones from Pembrokeshire are very different odds, so pin down the parish first.
- Look for the second surname. Rowlands traced an emigrant Davies family to mid Cardiganshire by combining Davies with the wife’s maiden name, Richards. Mothers’ surnames and middle names narrow things down fast.
- Expect the surname to change. Before about 1800 in rural Wales, a son might be William Dafydd even if his father was Dafydd Rees. Follow the first names, not just the family name.
- Check the ap forms. Price, Pryce, Preece and Rice can all be the same family written by different clerks.
Watch out for: Davis and Davies are the same name, and so are Lloyd and Floyd, Wynne and Gwyn, and Price and Pryce. And a Welsh-looking surname does not prove Welsh roots: Jones turns up in English records as early as 1273, and Morgan, Owen and Griffin also have Irish origins.
Quick list: 100 Welsh surnames and their meanings
| Surname | Welsh root | Meaning | Type | Variants | Wales 1986 | 1881 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beddoe | Bedo | disputed: the personal name Bedo, or Betws | First name | Beddow, Beddows | 529 | |
| Bevan | ab Ifan | son of Evan | ap or ab | Bevans, Evans | #38 | 7,300 |
| Bevans | ab Ifan | son of Evan | ap or ab | Bevan | ||
| Beynon | ab Einion | son of Einion | ap or ab | Eynon, Binyon | #61 | |
| Blayney | Blaenau | from Blaenau | Place | Blaney | ||
| Bowen | ab Owain | son of Owen | ap or ab | Owen, Owens | #34 | 12,351 |
| Breese | ap Rhys | son of Rhys | ap or ab | Price, Preece | ||
| Cecil | Seisyllt | from the Old Welsh name Seisyllt | First name | Seisyllt | ||
| Conway | Conwy | from Conwy, the town or river | Place | Conwy | ||
| Craddock | Caradog | from Caradog, beloved, amiable | First name | Cradock | #97 | |
| Daniels | Daniel + -s | son of Daniel | Patronymic -s | Daniel | #52 | |
| David | David | from David, used as a surname in Wales in honour of St David | First name | Davies | #60 | |
| Davies | David + -s | son of David | Patronymic -s | Davis | #3 | 152,045 |
| Davis | David + -s | son of David | Patronymic -s | Davies | #48 | |
| Dewey | Dewi | possibly from Dewi (David); disputed | Place | Dewi | ||
| Edmunds | Edmund + -s | son of Edmund | Patronymic -s | Edmonds | #56 | |
| Edwards | Edward + -s | son of Edward | Patronymic -s | Edward | #11 | 83,101 |
| Elias | Elias | the New Testament form of Elijah | Bible name | Ellis | #84 | |
| Ellis | Elis | from Elis, a Welsh form of Elias, or from Elisedd | First name | Bellis | #33 | 43,223 |
| Evans | Ifan + -s | son of Evan (Ifan, a Welsh John) | Patronymic -s | Bevan | #4 | 130,294 |
| Eynon | Einion | from Einion, linked to einion, anvil | First name | Beynon, Einon | ||
| Floyd | Llwyd | grey (an English spelling of Lloyd) | Nickname | Lloyd | ||
| Games | Gam | from cam, one-eyed or cross-eyed | Nickname | Gam | ||
| Gethin | Gethin | dark, swarthy; or a pet form of Gruffudd | First name | Gething | ||
| Gough | Coch | red | Nickname | Goff | #58 | |
| Goyder | Coedwr | woodman, forester | Occupation | Goyder | ||
| Griffin | Gruffudd | from Griffinus, a Latin form of Gruffudd (also Irish) | First name | Griffith | #65 | |
| Griffith | ap Gruffudd | from Gruffudd | First name | Griffiths | ||
| Griffiths | Gruffudd + -s | son of Gruffudd | Patronymic -s | Griffith, Griffin | #10 | 48,883 |
| Gwenlan | Gwenllian | from Gwenllian, a mother’s name | First name | Gwenllian | ||
| Gwinnett | Gwynedd | from Gwynedd | Place | Gwynett | ||
| Gwyn | Gwyn | white, fair | Nickname | Gwynne, Wynne | ||
| Gwynne | Gwyn | white, blessed | Nickname | Gwyn, Wynne | #75 | |
| Harris | Harry + -s | son of Harry (Henry) | Patronymic -s | Harrison | #19 | |
| Havard | Haverfordwest | probably from Haverfordwest | Place | Haverd | #85 | 774 |
| Herbert | Herbert | from the Norman given name Herbert | First name | Harbert | #59 | |
| Hopkins | Hopkin + -s | son of Hopkin, a pet form of Robert | Patronymic -s | Hopkin | #35 | |
| Howell | Hywel | from Hywel, eminent | First name | Howells, Powell | 12,563 | |
| Howells | Howell + -s | son of Howell (Hywel) | Patronymic -s | Howell, Powell | #26 | 7,623 |
| Hughes | Huw + -s | son of Huw (Hugh) | Patronymic -s | Pugh | #7 | 83,571 |
| Humphreys | Humphrey + -s | son of Humphrey | Patronymic -s | Humphries | #31 | |
| James | James | from the English given name James | First name | Jameson | #13 | 58,533 |
| Jenkin | Siencyn | little John | First name | Jenkins | ||
| Jenkins | Jenkin + -s | son of Jenkin, little John | Patronymic -s | Jenkin | #18 | 35,086 |
| John | John | the early form of the name Jones grew from | First name | Jones | #24 | |
| Jones | ap Siôn | son of John | Patronymic -s | Johns | #1 | 337,940 |
| Kyffin | Kyffin | a Welsh place name | Place | Cyffin | ||
| Lewis | Llywelyn | an English name adopted for Llywelyn; also from Norman Lowis | First name | Llewellyn | #8 | 78,457 |
| Leyshon | Lleision | from the Welsh given name Lleision | First name | Leyson | #90 | |
| Llewellyn | Llywelyn | from Llywelyn | First name | Lewis | #42 | 4,363 |
| Lloyd | Llwyd | grey | Nickname | Floyd, Llwyd | #20 | 34,862 |
| Mathias | Mathias | a form of Matthew | First name | Matthews | #67 | |
| Matthews | Matthew + -s | son of Matthew | Patronymic -s | Mathias | #29 | |
| Meredith | Maredudd | from Maredudd | First name | Meredydd | #49 | |
| Morgan | Morgan | from Old Welsh Morcant | First name | Morgans | #9 | |
| Morris | Morus, Meurig | from the Welsh name Morus; also English Maurice | First name | Morus | #14 | 66,306 |
| Mostyn | Mostyn | from Mostyn in Flintshire | Place | Mostin | ||
| Moyle | Moel | bald | Nickname | Moil | ||
| Nanney | Nannau | from the Nannau estate near Dolgellau | Place | Nanny | ||
| Nicholas | Nicholas | from the given name Nicholas | First name | Nicholls | #53 | |
| Oliver | Oliver | from the given name Oliver | First name | Olivers | ||
| Owen | Owain | from Owain, noble-born | First name | Owens, Bowen | #12 | 35,405 |
| Owens | ab Owain + -s | son of Owen | Patronymic -s | Owen, Bowen | 14,816 | |
| Parry | ap Harri | son of Harry | ap or ab | Harris | #23 | 22,736 |
| Pennant | Pen y Nant | from Pen y Nant, head of the stream | Place | Pennant | ||
| Phillips | Philip + -s | son of Philip | Patronymic -s | Philips | #17 | 53,197 |
| Picton | Picton | a place name (Pica’s farm, or peak farm) | Place | Pickton | #92 | |
| Powell | ap Hywel | son of Hywel | ap or ab | Howell, Howells | #22 | 37,127 |
| Powys | Powys | from Powys | Place | Powis | #96 | |
| Preece | ap Rhys | son of Rhys | ap or ab | Price | #54 | |
| Price | ap Rhys | son of Rhys | ap or ab | Pryce, Preece, Breese, Rice | #15 | 52,144 |
| Pritchard | ap Rhisiart | son of Richard | ap or ab | Richards | #27 | 16,079 |
| Probert | ap Robert | son of Robert | ap or ab | Roberts | #68 | |
| Prosser | ap Rhosier | son of Roger | ap or ab | Rosser, Rogers | #55 | 4,646 |
| Prothero | ap Rhydderch | son of Rhydderch | ap or ab | Protheroe, Prytherch | ||
| Pryce | ap Rhys | son of Rhys | ap or ab | Price | 1,432 | |
| Pugh | ap Huw | son of Hugh | ap or ab | Hughes | #32 | 11,385 |
| Radnor | Radnor | from Radnor | Place | Radnor | ||
| Rees | Rhys | from Rhys | First name | Rice, Price | #16 | 26,014 |
| Rice | Rhys | an anglicised Rhys | First name | Rees, Reece | #80 | 9,209 |
| Richards | Richard + -s | son of Richard | Patronymic -s | Pritchard | #21 | 45,019 |
| Roberts | Robert + -s | son of Robert | Patronymic -s | Probert | #6 | 111,710 |
| Roderick | Rhydderch | used to anglicise Rhydderch | First name | Prothero | #76 | |
| Rogers | Roger + -s | son of Roger | Patronymic -s | Rosser, Prosser | #28 | |
| Rosser | Rhosier | from Rhosier, the Welsh Roger | First name | Prosser, Rogers | #66 | |
| Rowlands | Rowland + -s | son of Rowland | Patronymic -s | Rowland | #30 | 7,447 |
| Samuel | Samuel | the Bible name Samuel | Bible name | Samuels | ||
| Sayer | Saer | carpenter | Occupation | Sayr | ||
| Thomas | Thomas | from the given name Thomas, Aramaic for twin | First name | Thoms | #5 | 123,177 |
| Trevor | Trefor | big settlement (tref plus mawr) | Place | Trefor | ||
| Tudor | Tudur | from Tudur, from Brittonic Toutorix | First name | Tudur | ||
| Upjohn | ap John | son of John | ap or ab | Jones | ||
| Vaughan | Fychan | small, younger | Nickname | Vaughn | #45 | |
| Voyle | Moel | bald (moel softened to foel) | Nickname | Voyl, Foel | ||
| Walters | Walter + -s | son of Walter | Patronymic -s | Watkins | #41 | |
| Watkin | Watkin | a pet form of Walter | First name | Watkins | ||
| Watkins | Watkin + -s | son of Watkin, a pet form of Walter | Patronymic -s | Watkin | #25 | |
| Williams | ap Gwilym | son of William | Patronymic -s | Williamson (English) | #2 | 213,957 |
| Wynn | Gwyn | white | Nickname | Wynne | ||
| Wynne | Gwyn | white, fair | Nickname | Wynn, Gwynne | #57 | 2,589 |
FAQ about Welsh surnames
What is the most common Welsh surname?
Jones. It made up 13.84 per cent of names in Welsh marriage registers in 1813 to 1837 and was still first in the 1986 Welsh phone directories, with about 60,570 entries. In 1881, 337,940 people in England and Wales were called Jones. Williams and Davies come next.
What does ap mean in a Welsh name?
Ap means son of, and ab is the form used before a vowel; ferch means daughter of. Evan ap Thomas was Evan, son of Thomas. When surnames became fixed, ap often fused onto the father’s name, so ap Rhys became Price, ap Hywel became Powell and ab Owen became Bowen.
Why are there so few Welsh surnames?
Because Welsh surnames grew out of fathers’ first names, and only a small set of first names was in use when they were fixed, mostly from the 16th to the early 19th century. Thousands of unrelated Johns produced thousands of unrelated Joneses, so the same few names cover a huge share of people.
How can I tell if my surname is Welsh?
Look for a first name with an -s added (Jones, Evans, Roberts), a name starting with P or B that hides ap or ab (Price, Pugh, Bowen, Bevan), or a Welsh description such as Lloyd, Vaughan, Gough or Wynne. Then check where your family lived: names like Roberts are English too, so geography settles it.
Is Davies Welsh or English?
Davies is Welsh: a patronymic meaning son of David, and one of the most common surnames in Wales. It is also the eighth most common surname in England, where many people have Welsh ancestry. Davis is the same name and is far more common in the United States.
Final thoughts on Welsh surnames
If your surname is Jones, Davies or Williams, the honest answer is that it tells you your ancestors were Welsh, or lived near Wales, and not much more, so the parish is where the real story is. If it is Price, Pugh, Bowen or Prothero, you are carrying an old Welsh patronymic in your name every day, ap and all.
Every name here started as a first name, so our list of Welsh boy names is the place to meet Rhys, Hywel and Owain in person. For the bigger picture across Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and the Isle of Man, see our guide to Celtic last names.
Sources
- John and Sheila Rowlands, The Distribution of Surnames in Wales, Nomina 29
- Guild of One-Name Studies, The top hundred surnames in Wales (1986 directories, Michael A. Williams)
- Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, Welsh surnames (1881 census counts)
- Welsh surnames
- Enwau’r Cymry (Welsh Wikipedia)
- Robert A. Fowkes, Welsh Surnames of Occupational Origin, Names 41 (1993)
- National Records of Scotland, Most common surnames 2025
- US Census Bureau, Frequently occurring surnames from the 2010 census
- Jones (surname)
- Price (surname)
- Powell (surname)
- Lloyd (name)
- Vaughan (surname)
- Dafydd Gam
