Welsh2 syllablesAnglicised form
Meaning: from Gruffudd — the second element is udd, lord.
Griffith
Griffith is what English clerks made of Gruffudd, and the misspelling stuck so hard it became a name of its own.
| Origin | English form of Welsh Gruffudd, also spelled Gruffydd |
|---|---|
| Meaning | The final element is Welsh udd, "lord, prince". The first element is disputed; the popular gloss "strong grip" is a guess, not an established etymology |
| Pronunciation | GRIF-ith. Welsh Gruffudd is close, but its final dd is the voiced th of "this", not the th of "thin" |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 as a given name and rare in that role; common as a surname on both sides of the Atlantic |
| Variants | Gruffudd, Gruffydd, Griffiths, Gryffyth (early records); Griffin is a separate name often confused with it |
| Nicknames | Griff; the Welsh pet forms Guto and Gutyn belong to Gruffudd |
| Surname note | Welsh patronymics were frozen into fixed family names after the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1543, which is how Griffith became a surname |
History & meaning
Welsh spelling is regular; it just is not English. In Welsh, f is an English v and ff is an f; dd is the voiced th of "this" while th is the voiceless th of "thin"; ll is a voiceless l, made by holding the tongue in the l position and blowing air past its sides — not "cl", not "thl", whatever the phrasebooks say. Gruffudd obeys all of that. English scribes did not know it, heard something like grif-ith, and wrote Griffith. The version they invented has now been a real name for five hundred years, and its ancestor is thriving alongside it.
The name they were mangling belonged to the top of Welsh society. Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, killed in 1063, is the only ruler ever to have held all of Wales at once. Gruffudd ap Cynan, who died in 1137, rebuilt the kingdom of Gwynedd after Norman incursions and founded the dynasty that produced the last native princes — see Llewelyn. In each case the ap means "son of", the patronymic system that Gruffudd explains in full; when Tudor legislation required fixed surnames, thousands of families simply froze the father's name in place, which is why Griffith, Griffiths, Jones and Evans dominate the Welsh phone book. One thing worth keeping straight: Griffin is not a short form of this name. It comes from the mythical beast and, separately, from an Irish surname, and only sounds like a relative.
Why parents choose it
It carries Welsh dynastic history in a shape English speakers can read at a glance, and it has the sturdy, slightly bookish quality of a surname-name without being invented last week. Griff is one of the better nicknames in circulation.
Middle names for Griffith
Three-beat first names want a plain second: Griffith Rhys, Griffith Owen, Griffith Cai, Griffith Lloyd. Historical pairings like the first of those are documented Welsh usage rather than invention. The middle names guide has the full method.
Famous Griffiths
Griffith Jones of Llanddowror (1683–1761) ran the circulating schools that taught much of eighteenth-century Wales to read in its own language, an achievement historians still rank among the most effective literacy campaigns in Europe. Griffith Rhys Jones (1834–1897), known by his bardic name Caradog, conducted the choir that beat all comers at the Crystal Palace in the 1870s. In America the name travelled mainly as a surname, from the film director D. W. Griffith to the actor Andy Griffith.
Consider instead
Gruffudd is the original, if you are willing to spell it for people forever. Griffin gives the same opening syllable with a beast rather than a prince behind it. Rhys is the other great Welsh dynastic name and needs no anglicising at all.