Welsh Journals

SOME REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT BARRY AND SULLY GAVE NAMES TO THEIR LORDS' FAMILIES RATHER THAN THE LORDS TO THE PLACES. J. S. CORBETT. As to Barry, Giraldus Cambrensis was born about the middle of the twelfth century, not more than 60 or 70 years after the conquest of Glamorgan, and was himself of the de Barri family. In his Itinerarum Cambriae, after speaking of Cardiff, he says There is, not far distant from hence, a small island situated on the shore of the Severn sea, which the neighbouring people (call) Barri, so called from the name of *Saint Baroc, formerly an inhabitant of the same place whose remains also, removed into a tomb, are contained in a chapel there situate, embraced in the folds of ivy. From the name of this island, too, the nobles of the parts of South Wales, bordering on the sea, who are want to bear rule over the same island, with the neigh- bouring lands, are named. Taking, that is to say, first, the agnomen, then the cognomen of de Barri, from Barri." I think agnomen and cognomen are not quite trans- lateable, at least, by one word. Agnomen, I believe, is a name applied to tone man. Cognomen is used when it has become applicable to many, i.e., a surname of a family. *Whether this was really the origin of the name of the island is not so clear. t i.e., as an addition to distinguish him from others of the same Christian name.