http://www.racocatala.com/catalunyacymru/amryw/enwau_cyfenwau_BEVAN_2523e.htm
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Bevan is an “English name of Welsh origin”, meaning ‘son of John’ or
‘Johnson’. In English the pronunciation is BE vøn (ø = obscure vowel as in the
first vowel of ABOUT), rhyming with seven, heaven, etc. The Welsh name is
pronounced slightly differently.
Latin IOHANNUS (John) came into British, or proto-Welsh, through the Latin
of the Christian Church (before the year 500 or so when British became Old
Welsh)
Proto-Welsh IOANN- (or a similar form) became Ieuan (modern spelling).
Endings of nouns and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, etc) had
dropped off, one of the features that differentiates Old Welsh from British. By
medieval times Ieuan [YEI an] had changed to Iefan [YE van, or YEE van]
colloquially. (E as in pet; EE represents a longer sound (“half-long vowel),
like (but not as long as) the lengthened E sound in Northern English plane,
gain, rain).
This change is paralleled by the word ieuanc (= young) which became ifanc -
in modern Welsh ieuanc is the literary word, and ifanc is the colloquial word.
Ieuan is used today as a forename, but it is a reintroduction in the 1900s
of the medieval name, though its use was made popular in the 1800s in bardic
pseudonyms of poets with official English names ‘John’ and ‘Evan’. (Evan Jones
living near the river Taf might have styled himself ‘Ieuan Taf’ for example)
Iefan was still in use in the south-east until the 1900s, though it would
not have been the name used on a birth certificate or other official documents
- the official English form of this name was Evan.
In other parts of Wales Iefan became either Ifan or Efan (probably a
geographical variant - Ifan used in some parts, Efan in another). The Evan form
was the one which was used by English speakers. In modern Welsh, Ifan is
considered the Welsh equivalent of Evan; although Efan is a perfectly good
Welsh form. It seems to be coming back into use in Welsh - for example,
somebody called in English Evan Williams might write the name in Welsh as Efan
rather than Ifan.
The patronymic was ab Ifan or ab Efan. ‘ab’ is a reduced form of ‘fab’,
from ‘mab’ (= son). It corresponds exactly to Irish / Scottish / Manx mac (k in
the Gaelic languages generally corresponds to p in the British languages -
Welsh, Cornish, Breton - and this p in proto-Welsh has become b at the end of a
word in Welsh).
(Before an ‘h’ the ‘b’ of ‘ab’ became ‘p’:
Harri, ab Harri > ap Harri > Parri > English Parry,
Hopcyn, ab Hopcyn > ap Hopcyn > Popcyn > English Popkin;
and in imitation of this it also became ap before a consonant:
ab Morgan > ap Morgan,
ab Gwilÿm > ap Gwilÿm)
In genealogies this is not so apparent because in medieval Welsh both ‘ab’
and ‘ap’ were written ‘ap’ - just as the English word ‘of’ at one time
represented pronunciaitons with [f] and [v], though in modern English separate
spellings show the different pronunciations - of, off.
Ab Ifan coalesced into Bifan, and ab Efan into Befan. Bifan occurs as
Beavan in English counties in the Welsh border. The loss of a syllable before a
stressed syllable is a common feature of Welsh (Nadolig > Dolig = Christmas,
hosanau > sanau = socks, afalau > falau = apples, ymenyn > menyn =
butter, nid oes > does = there isn’t)
At a later period, the “ab” disappeared. So a Morgan ab Efan (Morgan son of
Evan) in the 1500s would have been Morgan Efan in the 1700s. This became the
English-language surname Evan.
In some English-language surnames from Welsh forename the genitive ’s was
added. So ‘son of Siôn’ became Jone or Jones (i.e. Jone’s [son]). The form Jone
lost ground to Jones - the form with ‘s’ was more favoured, probably because it
sounded more English. (In north-east Wales though it survives as Shone). The
same happened with Evan as a surname - it came to be regarded as less usual or
possibly less prestigious, and eventually everybody with the surname Evan began
to use the form Evans instead.
On the other hand, Morgan and Owen for example are the usual forms of the
surname, and the surname “Morgans” and “Owens” are rare.
Is Bevan a forename or a surname? In Welsh it is definitely not a forename,
but in an English context there is no reason why it should not be a forename.
In fact, there is no reason why it should not be a forename in Welsh either -
it’s just that nobody has used it yet as a forename. At least one Welsh ‘ap /
ab’ form, properly a patronymic or surname, has been used as a forename in
Welsh - Prys (son of RHYS) - in English (around 1500s or earlier) Price, (1600s
Preece). I’m sure there are others - none come to mind at the moment.
In Welsh, the final vowel is a clear ‘a’ - it is not the ‘ø’ obscure vowel
of English,.
Efan in the south is
prounced Êfan [EE van] (EE represents a lengthened E sound, as in Northern
English plane, gain, rain). In north Wales it is [E van] (the E as in standard
English pet, men, well).
Nodiadau gan / Notes by
Ianto Glan Tawe 2006-09-27.
_______________________________
Adolygiad diweddaraf - latest update:
2006-09-27.
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