Originally Posted by
streety
I'm afraid Malcolm's claims that "Welsh" is far less appropriate than "Cumbric" or "Brythonic" etc are way off. Firstly, the term Welsh (or if you insist Wēalas or other early spellings, etc) comes from this era as a generic Anglo-Saxon term for most of the pre-existing peoples of Britain (as Wales as a distinct nation didn't exist). Btw, the Anglo-Saxon term derives from the Germanic word for Gauls.
But Malcolm wants to impose a Mediaeval term. Yes, Cymry is first mentioned in poem attributed to a 7th poet, but it's not certain if it was actually first written down in that form in 633-ish or only when transcribed a few hundred years later when collated with other scant early Welsh writings. And even if it was actually penned as cymry in circa 633, did it refer to a collective name or just mean "kindred"? Either way, even among the Welsh, the term Brythoniaid was more common in early Mediaeval times prior to circa 1200 - Cymry only becomes common afterwards. However, even Brython (Briton), was applied to more than just the Welsh in what is today Wales, so it's all much of muchness. What we do at least know is that Anglo-Saxons were using the term Welsh - the rest is at best highly debatable.
Malcolm also complains about the use of Alban - I agree but for very different reasons, as the term Alba is again one retro-imposed on the period by mediaeval writers. And no, it didn't mean "little Scotland", but (derived from Albion and shortened from a term meaning Northern Britain), and it wasn't contemporary as it was only later introduced by mediaeval scholars (such as in the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba) to refer to Scotland during its earlier period under the Pictish kings. A better term would indeed be Pictish, as it's a term (as Picti, painted) that dates back to Roman times, and the historical character leading this faction, King Áed mac Cináeda, was the king of the Picts, not the king of Circnen or Alba. Cinaeda was just his dad's name, he was Áed, son of Cináeda, not Áed, king of Cináeda.