Merfyn

Male
CPL
4 of 5

Discussion of the name

Merfyn is a Welsh masculine name. It occurs occasionally in the Welsh genealogies and most notably was the name of a pivotal figure in Welsh history, Merfyn Frych (d. 844) (PASE: Merfyn 1), father of Rhodri Mawr, and two generations later of one of Rhodri’s own sons (d. 904); it does not appear in any later generation of the genealogies down to 1215 (Bartrum 1974: V, pp. 75, 156). A Merfyn (Meruin) witnessed three Llandaff charters in the period c. 743–52 (Davies 1979: index).

In DB the name Mereuuin at Baysham, in the Welsh territory of Archenfield, has hitherto been understood as OE Merewine (von Feilitzen 1937: 327). Despite being spelled the same as instances in Warwickshire and Yorkshire which undoubtedly do represent the OE name (Warws. 16:35; Yorks. 13N:1), the holder of Baysham must surely have been Welsh. The only slight doubt is that Baysham was itself an OE place-name (PN Herefs. 179), but that is not in itself enough to make its owner English, given the Welshness of Archenfield.

Bibliography

Bartrum 1974: Welsh Genealogies, A.D. 300–1400, comp. Peter Clement Bartrum, 8 vols (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1974)

Davies 1979: Wendy Davies, The Llandaff Charters (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1979)

PN Herefs.: Bruce Coplestone-Crow, Herefordshire Place-Names, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 214 (1989)

von Feilitzen 1937: Olof von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book, Nomina Germanica 3 (Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells, 1937)

Forms of the name

Spellings in Domesday Book: Mereuuin

Forms in modern scholarship:

  von Feilitzen head forms: Merewine

  Phillimore edition: Merwin

  Alecto edition: Merewine