Griffiths
also Gruffydd, ap Gruffydd, Griffith
Son of the strong lord — the patronymic of Llywelyn the Last.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Griffiths
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Griffiths.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
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Stake your name →What does the Griffiths name mean?
From ap Gruffydd — son of Gruffydd, the personal name borne by Llywelyn the Last (Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last sovereign Prince of Wales) and by the family of Owain Glyndŵr. The genitive 's' of Tudor surname compression turned ap Gruffydd into Griffiths and the southern variant Griffith. The personal name itself derives from Old Welsh Gruffudd ('strong lord'), one of the most resonant princely names of mediaeval Wales.
The history of Griffiths
Gruffydd was the personal name of three sovereign princes of Gwynedd — Gruffydd ap Cynan (1055–1137), Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (d. 1244), and the family of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last sovereign Prince of Wales who fell at Cilmeri in 1282. Through the high Middle Ages it was among the most prestigious personal names in Welsh use, carried especially in Gwynedd and across the Welsh borderlands. The patronymic ap Gruffydd compressed under Tudor naming policy into Griffiths (and the southern variant Griffith) and is among the densest Welsh surnames today, carried particularly heavily in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and across the Welsh diaspora.
Trevor Griffiths (b. 1935), the Manchester-born playwright of Welsh-Lancastrian descent, wrote Comedians and the screenplay for Reds. Terry Griffiths (b. 1947), the Llanelli snooker player, won the World Snooker Championship in 1979 — only the second qualifier ever to do so. Andy Griffiths (b. 1961), the Australian children's author of the Treehouse series, descends from a Welsh-South-Wales emigrant Griffiths line that settled in Melbourne in the 1850s gold rush.
Notable bearers of the Griffiths name
- Trevor Griffiths (b. 1935) — playwright (Comedians; the Reds screenplay)
- Terry Griffiths (b. 1947) — World Snooker Champion 1979
- Andy Griffiths (b. 1961) — Australian children's author (the Treehouse series)
Frequently asked
What does the surname Griffiths mean?
Where does the Griffiths family come from?
Who are some famous Griffithses?
Is Gruffydd the same family as Griffiths?
Neighbouring clans
- JonesSon of John — and roughly one in twenty Welsh-descended people in the world.
- WilliamsSon of William — second only to Jones in Welsh density, and first in the north.
- DaviesSon of David — born of the patron saint's name and densest in his own corner of Wales.
- ThomasThe fifth Welsh surname — son of Thomas, on the same Tudor-era road as Jones and Williams.