Harry was the eighth person I'd met with the surname Jones. Everyone seemed to be called Jones, Williams, Davies or Evans. To prevent confusion, the Welsh use nicknames, and nowhere is their teasing wit and love and language more apparent.
Most nicknames derive from a person's occupation, such as the builder I heard of called Will-Five-Bricks, or the baker Dai-Bread, as in Dylan Thomas' Under Milkwood.
My favourites were the two Evanses from a village in Carmarthenshire. One was an undertaker, the other a travel agent. The travel agent was known as Evans-There-and-Back, the undertaker as Evans-One-Way.
-oOo-
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