Welsh

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Welsh, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Seren
• Owain
• Olwen
• Gwyn
• Ffion

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Welsh is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Argentina, France, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Węlsh

• Polish surname28 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Welch, Уэлч, Velch, Велч, Уэлш

54 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Welsh is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Middle English welshe, Old English wēalisc/wēlisc ‘foreign, Welsh’; first attested Simon Welsche 1279 RH (Beds)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, From Old English walh ‘foreigner, stranger’; a name for a person of different kindred or Brittonic speech/origin.

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• Melville Richards, Welsh Administrativeand Territorial Units. The Western Mail newspaper, Cardiff. John Morris-Jones, A Welsh Grammar. J. Gwenogvryn Evans (editor), The White BookMabinogion.

  as a name·Welsh Surnames

• In English, Of or pertaining to Wales.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, lang., people. Wales

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Mary Welsh Hemingwayb. 1908USAmerican journalist (1908–1986)
• Kenneth Welshb. 1942CACanadian actor (1942-2022)
• Irvine Welshb. 1958GBScottish writer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

36 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 23 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Welsh mean, and where does it come from?

Briton, Celt, from Middle English welsche ‘foreign, non-Anglo-Saxon, Celtic’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

What are other forms of the name Welsh?

In the etymology graph, Vlach is a form of the same name in other languages.

Which countries have the most people with the surname Welsh?

In the United States, the national register counted about 30 thousand people named Welsh, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled welsh. After it come United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Africa; the country table on this page ranks them.

Where is Welsh most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Welsh is densest in Grenada — about 1 in 814 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Welsh?

In the United States, the national register counted 30,153 people named Welsh in 2010, about 1 in 11 thousand residents.

How common is Welsh compared with other names?

In the United States, Welsh is the 993rd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.