In today’s Questionable Content, we discover that Raven’s first name is Blodwyn, which is a Welsh name meaning “white flowers”. I noticed right away that the name was spelled with a ‘y’, indicating the masculine gender–for a girl, it should be “Blodwen”. When I did a search to find out what the name meant, I discovered that some baby name websites actually have this reversed, claiming that “Blodwen” is the male form. Some sites, on the other hand, state that the names are both feminine, and simply variants of each other.
I just wanted to point out that I know better :>
I am guessing that the Welsh don’t actually have the name “Blodwyn”, but that people who were casually familiar with certain Welsh spelling conventions happened to transcribe “Blodwen” with a y. This is understandable. When I first started learning about Wales, I thought the ys were prettier than the es, and that they should be for women. Now, though, I see a y and think “Man!” It’s all perspective…
Either way, “Blodwyn” is used a lot online. The ubiquitousness makes me wonder if that’s actually how they say “white flowers” in Wales, or if I’m (gasp) wrong about the masculinity thing. (It could happen. But I would be very upset!)
There was a band called Blodwyn Pig in the 60s, so named by “a stoned hippy friend just back from the Bhuddist trail”. I am not sure what this even means…but I thought you’d like to know.