Cambria Will Not Yield!

Mudiad Eryr Wen

Very recently, GB News decided to draw a connection between a recent action by Mudiad Eryr Wen activists in Wrecsam and the (now) rapidly growing Senedd petition to officially refer to Wales as Cymru.

Given the standard of “journalism” one can expect from GB News, it should come as no surprise that the apparent link between MEW and the petition doesn’t exist.

While the movement has long campaigned for the removal of anglicised names for our towns and villages, it has never formally taken a position regarding the name of the country itself.

In light of this, we would like to take the opportunity to clarify our position regarding naming conventions in Wales, in addition to our proposal in relation to this particular debate.

When it comes to places within Wales, our position is unequivocal: anglicisations should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Most of these names are mere corruptions of the original Welsh, such as “Crickhowell”, “Cardiff”, “Denbigh”.

In other, more ridiculous instances, the corruption barely, if at all, registers in pronunciation, such as with “Merthyr Tydfil”, “Ruthin”, “Caerphilly”, “Kidwelly”, “Treorchy” etc.

This isn’t without precedent, as the likes of “Dolgelley”, “Carnarvon”, and “Conway” were previously removed from use over the course of the last century and have since faded into obscurity.

There are many Welsh exonyms for places in England, most of which predate the English names. Nevertheless, these names do not appear on road signs in England, nor would anyone reasonably expect them to.

In a similar vein, Germany doesn’t display “Nuremburg” on signs for Nürnberg, nor does it display “Munich” on signs for München.

A nation’s adoption of its own endonym for domestic use does not constitute a “ban” on others using an exonym in their own language, despite GB News’ attempt to frame it as such.

Modest revision

With regard to the national name, we propose a modest revision to the petition’s current proposal.

While we broadly support the petition, especially its call for changes to naming conventions in Wales in line with the principles set out above, we believe a more nuanced approach would be preferable.

In a domestic context, the Welsh Government should transition to using Cymru exclusively, just as Germany refers to itself as Deutschland, or Albania refers to itself as Shqipëria.

However, as with these examples, a different name should be used in an international context. This is primarily because it reflects the existing international standard, with only a handful of recent examples, such as Türkiye, departing from this convention.

Another consideration is simply pronunciation. While we firmly reject such arguments in relation to domestic place names, we believe that, in an international context, it is preferable to use a name that is more readily pronounced.

Despite the relatively simple pronunciation of Cymru, many people, both English and non-English alike, continue to mispronounce it on a regular basis.

For these reasons, we propose an alternative name on the international stage.

Many may simply suggest that Wales is sufficient in this role; however, as the petition identifies, the name is controversial for some.

The exact etymology of the name has been the subject of debate, but the prevailing consensus has moved away from the commonly held claim that it means “foreigners”.

Whatever its ultimate etymology, the name remains an English exonym that bears no relation to the nation’s own name. It is this distinction that leads us to our proposal.

Derived from the Welsh endonym and rooted in Latin, the name Cambria offers a viable alternative.

The name is already embedded within the English language and enjoys significant existing usage, as demonstrated by examples such as the Cambrian Mountains, Coleg Cambria, and the Cambrian Line.

An entire geological period, the Cambrian, derives its name from this term, owing to the discovery of its defining rocks in Wales.

Many European countries already have English exonyms derived from Latin, including Germany (Germania), Spain (Hispania), and Italy (Italia), among others.

Although Latin in form, it is believed that Geoffrey of Monmouth coined the term rather than the Romans, though this would not be without precedent.

Our national flag, Y Ddraig Goch, also owes much of its prominence to the works of Geoffrey.

In any event, we believe that the first priority should be addressing the naming of places within Wales itself.

That being said, we would encourage people to sign the petition so that the issue can be brought forward for debate in the Senedd, now that we finally have a Welsh party in government.

View the petition calling for us to use Cymru not Wales as the official name for our nation, and one name only for our place names