This post has been edited on August 24, 2012.
I'll be blunt. I am at a point where I love Guinevere and Gwendolen so much, as individual names, that if I have to see Gwen as a nickname for Guinevere one more time, I'll scream. I understand that Guin and Gwen share the same root, but the spelling for each nickname is so different, and Guin is pronounced gwin, and Gwen, obviously gwen. It's not Gwenivere, thanks, and no better than smushes. Gwendolyn is barely tolerable, in my opinion. On another note, Gwenna is pretty interesting, as is Gwendoline.
I like Gwen just as she is, and I suppose when it comes to Guinevere, people are just looking for nicknames because it is a long name. To be fair, Guinevere does derive from the Welsh root gwen, which means fair.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Guinevere is a long name which needs a nickname (especially if you don't like straight-up Guin), but to me that would be similar to calling a Jennifer a Gwen, or a Marjorie by Madge instead of Marjie. Same root but deserving of different nicknames. In the case of Gwen and Guinevere, only the first syllable shares meaning, and they are two very separate names, in fact with their own queens to back each up. But I was also assuming that the majority did not know the root of Gwen and Guinevere, and were just mispronouncing Guinevere. My husband says Gwen-ivere, which is what led me to writing this post, as well as seeing it on the message boards too often. Anyways, I agree with you that Gwen on its own is quite nice. Sorry for the rant, I've just become so defensive of a few names. Capri, for example.
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