Though the anglicised Meredith may now be more
common for girls, original Welsh Maredudd is all male.
Origin: |
Maredudd is a traditional Welsh name, derived from the earlier old Welsh form Morgetiud. The last element is certainly the Old Welsh iudd "lord." The first part is debated. It is could a combination of the Proto Celtic *mfro "great" (maur in Middle Welsh) and kato "battle," therefore meaning "great battle lord." Alternatively, it could derive from the Proto-Celtic mrogi "territory, border, region," therefore "border lord." Welsh names stress the penultimate syllable, therefore Maredudd is mə-RED-idth. As the 'a' was an unstressed vowel, it was from an early time shorted to M'RED-ith. It was anglicised as Meredith — now the most common form of the name — though the modern English pronunciation was changed to ME-re-dith, with the stress on the first syllable. In Wales the original pronunciation is still preserved. |
Famous Bearers: |
History: * Maredudd ap Tewdwr / Morgetiud map Teudos (d. c. 797), a king of Dyfed. Contemporary: * Meredith MacRae (b. 1944), American actress. Literature and Other Media: * Meredith Blake, a (male) character in Agatha Christie's novel Five Little Pigs (1942). |
Variants: |
Maredydd, Meredith |
Pronunciation: |
mə-RED-idth [key] |
Possible diminutives: |
Bedo, Bedyn, Mads, Mars, Red |
Sibling Names: |
Gwenllian Angharad Ceridwen Guinevere Arianwen Maggie |
Name Lists: |
If you like Maredudd you may also like: |
Thanks to Euphemia for requesting this post.