Breton names explained: the full guide

Breton is a Celtic language from Brittany, the westernmost region of France.

Breton first names include choices like Erwan, Yann, and Tanguy (for boys), alongside options like Nolwenn, Maelys, and Louane (for girls). And plenty more that we shall see in this article.

Breton last names include Le Bihan, Le Gall, Le Guen, and Guillou.

Male Breton names

The original and Frenchified spellings of Breton names

Breton names can be very different from French names simply because Breton and French are very different languages. Breton is closer to other Celtic languages like Welsh than to French.

Many Breton names have a Frenchified spelling in addition to their original Breton spelling.

That’s because Breton and French have very different pronunciations, so most French speakers would not know how to correctly pronounce some Breton names based on their original Breton spelling.

The Breton suffix “-ig” is a diminutive that adds a sense of endearment to the original name. For example, the name Yannig is obtained by applying this suffix to Yann, and the Annaig is the result of applying this suffix to Anne.

Because the Breton suffix “-ig” is pronounced as “ik”, the Frenchified versions of those names are spelled as Yannick and Annick.

The Frenchified spellings of some Breton names include two dots placed over a vowel to show that two adjacent vowels are pronounced separately rather than being merged as a diphthong. Examples include the following names: Gaël (Gael), Maël (Mael), and Maëlys (Maelys).

Female Breton names

Most Breton girl names don’t end with the letter ‘e’, whereas many French girl names do (for example, Françoise, Pauline, and Céline).

For instance, you might have heard of Anne de Bretagne (Anne of Brittany). She was a 15th-century Duchess of Brittany who later became Queen of France. Well, her name in Breton was Anna.

Several Breton Female names (like Nolwenn, Gwenn, and Maiwenn) contain the root word “gwenn,” which means “white” or “pure”. This root becomes “wenn” when it undergoes a soft mutation. Indeed, Breton (like most Celtic languages) has a linguistic feature of initial consonant mutations.

The Breton word “gwenn” is related to the Welsh word “gwyn” (meaning “white" or “blessed”), which is the root of the Welsh name Gwyneth, for instance.

Breton last names

To most Americans, the most familiar Breton last name is probably Kerouac. The American novelist Jack Kerouac, a pioneer of the Beat Generation wrote about his travels to Brittany in the search for traces of his Breton ancestors. These writings appear in his 1966 novel entitled “Satori in Paris”.

Some Breton names —such as Tanguy and Movan— appear both as first names and as last names.

Many Breton surnames have undergone some degree of Frenchification, in particular, the definite article which is “ar” in Breton being replaced by the French definite article “le”. For example “ar Bihan” became “Le Bihan”.

More Celtic names

Within the family of Celtic languages, Breton is closer to Welsh than to Irish. This is because Breton and Welsh are both part of the Brittonic subgroup of Celtic languages, whereas Irish is in the Goidelic group.

For more Celtic names, see these articles on Welsh girl names and Welsh boy names.

For even more Celtic names, see these articles on Irish girl names and Irish boy names.