Gender: Masculine
Origin: Breton/French
Meaning: “white; brave.”
The name is derived from an ancient Breton source, being composed of the elements uuin meaning “white; pure” and uual, meaning,”brave.”
The name was borne by a legendary Breton saint who was said to have been inspired by a dream he had of St. Patrick to found an abbey in Brittany. His feast and the designated name-day in France is March 3.
Other rare forms include:
- Gwenole (Breton/Welsh)
- Winwaloe (Cornish/English)
- Winwallus/Winwalloeus (Latin)
- Walloy (Picard)
- Gwenol (Polish)
Sources
- Tous les Saints du calendrier de Jacques Chabannes, Librairie académique Perrin, 1970
- http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jean-jacques.lelez/legende.htm
This is an interesting one. I’d never heard of it until now. According to the French language wiki entry about the saint the Picard form of the name is Walloy. I had to look up what the Picard language is because I’d never heard of that either!! Learning so much today as a result of your post!
Thanks Magda. That is interesting. I have added it 🙂
Of course now I’ve been trying to learn more about Picard names but with no luck. The French language wiki entry about the Picard language lists some names but they seem to be diminutives of French names and the list only has about 10 names on it total. I suspect that it’s not accurate.