A Ceredigion County Council scheme has helped ‘influence’ people to keep house names in the county in the Welsh language, a report has said.

The council scheme which made anyone wanting to change their new home’s name from a Welsh name to an English one wait 10 days and “reconsider” has seen application numbers fall each year from 2020, the report to be put before members of Ceredigion County Council’s Language Committee on Wednesday, 10 July outlines.

The policy, introduced in 2015, urged incomers to the county to keep their new home’s name to show “respect for local traditions”, to “ease the integration process” and help “strengthen relations with the community”.

Anyone informing Ceredigion council of their intention to rename their home is now sent a standardised letter urging them to reconsider and giving them a “10-day respite period” to change their minds and to “consider the context of changing [the] property’s name”.

It has received praise from Welsh language groups.

In 2016/17, when the new policy was first introduced, Ceredigion council said that 93 applications were received for naming new houses in Welsh, and 17 applications to name new houses in English.

While 28 applications were received to change the name of a house from English to Welsh, seven applications were made to change a home’s name from Welsh to English.

This year, Ceredigion only received one application to change a county’s home name from Welsh to English, with the majority of applications received between April 2023 and March 2024 changes from English to Welsh or renaming a Welsh house name to another Welsh name.

In the report, the council said “we have examples of English residents, who have recently moved to the area, applying to change the name of their English property to the Welsh Language.”

“Their reasoning for this is to support the local traditions and to form a bond with the local community,” the report said.

For new homes, seven in Ceredigion were named in English, compared to 102 in Welsh.

“Since the new policy and the inclusion of the letter, there has been no significant change in the figures,” the report says.

“The letter to consider the context of changing the property’s name appears to have influenced people, but regardless of the letter the property owner has the right to name their property anything (within reason) and in a language of their choice.”