Talk:Phelps (surname)

Origin

Phelps is actually of Welsh origins (Specifically south Wales and around the edges of the river Severn) It is not in anyway an 'English' name - It's the Welsh version of 'Philip' It also has no direct relation to 'Whelp' or similar - This comes from people wanting to link their name with a famous European family (gives a more interesting family history to have a Prince in the line etc). The only way this could have happened is in the early 20thC where some Germans in the UK and USA wanted to change their surname to something more 'English'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.144.234.220 (talk) 17:46, 2 February 2010

A lot of families moved from Somerset to South Wales when the coalfield was being developed, which explains the high proportion of non-Welsh speakers. It could also explain the incidence of English names in the area. --Redrose64 (talk) 17:59, 2 February 2010 (UTC)