mrodoc said:
Most of us have namesakes somewhere...
If you have a commonplace Welsh surname and a mainstream first name it's not 'somewhere' but 'everywhere'!
There were four other Rob Joneses in my secondary school class of 31 lads. :
This is why so many Welsh people have nicknames or adopt additional names - anything to differentiate us from all the other buggers who share the same name!
It's all the fault of a visiting English judge sometime in the eighteenth century:
Then strove the judge with main and might
The surrounding consonants to write,
But when the day was almost gone
He found his work not nearly done.
His ears assailed most woefully
With names like Rhys ap Griffith Ddu,
Aneirin, Iorweth, Ieuan Goch,
And Llwyarch Hen o Abersoch,
Taleiesin ap Llewelyn Fawr
And Llun ap Arthur bach y Cawr.
Until at length, in sheer despair,
He doffed his wig and tore his hair, ....
And said he would no longer stand
The surnames of 'our native land'.
"Take ten," he said, "and call them Rice."
"Take another ten and call them Price."
"Take fifty others, call them Pughs."
"A hundred more, .... I'll dub them Hughes."
"Now Roberts name some hundred score."
"And Williams name a legion more!"
.... "And call," he said, in disdained tones,
"Call the remaining thousands .... Jones!"