Huw

Huw is Hugh with Welsh spelling intact, three letters that look stranger on the page than they sound from the mouth. Pronounced like a clean, held hue, it comes from a Germanic root meaning heart or mind, carried into Britain by Normans and quietly re-clothed in Cymric dress. The form feels distinctively Welsh: compact, vowel-forward, a name that could belong to a miner's grandfather or a young composer. Huw Edwards read the BBC news for a generation; in Wales itself the name remains steadily used rather than fashionable. Small on paper, surprisingly full in the air. A name with its own weather.