What Do You Call Someone From Wales? (Answered!)

Someone from Wales is called Welsh. This is the standard demonym for a person of Welsh nationality, ancestry, or who has become Welsh in some sense or another. You may also refer to them as British, but it’s likely they will prefer Welsh. Welsh denotes the ethnic people of Wales.

To be from Wales, then, is to be Welsh.

This is doubtless what most people from Wales would feel to be the most important part of their identity.

At the same time, from the modern, legal standpoint of one’s citizenship, Welsh people are British citizens, and thus are legally citizens of the United Kingdom.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Wales called?

Someone from Wales is called Welsh.

This is the standard demonym for a person from Wales, and is the short, simple answer to the word you would use to refer to someone from this country.

Welsh national identity is a fascinating topic and one that emerged a very long time ago, some would suggest as early as the time when the Romans left Britain.

Indeed, one thing that makes Welsh identity fascinating is that the Welsh seem to descend from Celts who were not subsumed into the movements of Anglo-Saxon peoples in the centuries after Rome fell.

For the most part, Celtic populations did not survive past this time.

Many groups did, of course, as can be seen in Brittany and Cornwall, but these examples are fairly rare in the grand scheme of things.

The language is certainly derived from a Celtic root.

Welsh identity today, though, is comparable to any other modern country in most respects.

Welsh people are, again, legally British, but the Welsh aspect of their identity is very important to them.

Someone born in Wales to Welsh parents would consider themselves Welsh in every respect; equally, someone born to Welsh parents outside of Wales would no doubt feel this to be an important part of who they are.

And beyond that, someone born in Wales to non-Welsh parents would doubtless feel part of their identity to be Welsh.

The Welsh are certainly a distinct ethnic group, though, and again one of the clearest ways we can see this is in the language.

Ethnolinguistic groups are much easier to define than, say, genetic ethnic groups.

Most of Wales speaks Welsh to some degree–large parts of it speak English day to day, but Welsh is taught in schools and large parts of the country do speak it as their first language.

Where does the name “Wales” come from?

Our modern name for Wales ultimately derives from an Old English root word which was variously used to describe both Celtic people and inhabitants of the Western Roman Empire.

The words for both “Wales” and “Welsh” derive from the root word Wealh, descended from the Proto-Germanic word Walhaz.

This word was derived from the Latin Volcae, which was a term used by the Romans for a specific group in Gaul.

Originally, these terms were not restricted geographically to Wales.

Instead, the Anglo Saxons used these terms to describe Britons, so they also used this term for those living in Cornwall and other places where Bretons survived.

It was not until later on in the medieval period that Wales came to describe a specific people and geographical location to the west of England.

What you’ll often find in cases like this is that people use words to describe a certain group of people that live in a place, and then eventually that word comes to stand for the place itself, rather than the people.

What is Wales called in Welsh?

The Welsh call Wales Cymru, and the modern Welsh term for someone from Wales is Cyrmy.

These words are derived ultimately from a Brythonic root word, Combrogi, which meant “fellow-countrymen”.

This term seems to have been in use since at least the 7th Century and probably quite a bit earlier.

So, again, you can see that the place is defined by the people who live there, and not the other way around.

Given that the Celtic people left behind no written records of their own, piecing together the history has been a difficult task; but the Welsh are a wonderful living insight into these mysterious ancient people.

Where do the Welsh live?

In all this, it’s also important to consider the widespread Welsh diaspora across the world.

Welsh people can be found in large numbers in most of the English speaking world.

There are around 2 million Welsh people in Wales, and a further 2 million living in the United States.

There are also around 475,000 Welsh people living further north in Canada, too.

Unsurprisingly, many Welsh people live in England; around 610,000 currently live in the neighboring country.

There are also about 126,000 Welsh people living in Australia.

The point being simply that Welsh identity is defined by much more than simply living in the country.

So, again, the simple answer is that a person from Wales is Welsh; the more complex answer is that they are a British citizen and part of the United Kingdom, but ethnically Welsh.

In any case, the word you would always use is Welsh–both legally and geographically, British may be an accurate term to describe a Welsh person, but it’s more or less a given that they will prefer to be thought of in terms of their Welsh heritage.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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