CARDIFF is "less Welsh" than Shrewsbury, according to a surprising new set of figures.

The finding comes from the latest piece of research by a team analysing the spread of names across the UK and beyond.

Researchers found that the Welsh capital had one of the nation's lowest percentages of adults with names from Wales (21.30%) and even English border towns such as Shrewsbury (22%) and Leominster (21.54%) had a higher proportion of Welsh names on their electoral rolls.

Richard Webber, visiting professor at University College London, who led the research, said, "We've worked out the proportion of adults with Welsh names by post town in England and in Wales and it is interesting to see maps of this.

"For example Shrewsbury post town has a higher proportion of its adults with Welsh names than does Cardiff.

"You can thereby draw contours of Welshness both within Wales and outside it."

The most obvious conclusions to be drawn from the survey are that traditional Welsh names are least likely to be found between the south-eastern border towns and the belt of coastal communities stretching into the Vale of Glamorgan.

The paucity of Si ns and Joneses, or Ifors and Williamses in this instance, could be seen as testament to the proximity of the border, as well as to the effects of 19th century migration on such former industrial powerhouses as the coal and iron ports at Barry, Cardiff and Newport.

The Welsh-speaking heartlands of North Wales and the West Wales valleys, meanwhile, see the greatest proportion of adults with names from Wales, with Llangefni's population including 72.22% of adults with names from Wales.

Outside Wales, it will come as no great shock to discover that the British regions recording the fewest Welsh names were Scotland's remote Western Isles and Outer Hebrides.

Professor Webber's work also enabled him to trace the high proportion of English names in South Pembrokeshire - the well-known "Little England Beyond Wales" - and the surprising pockets of Scottish names in Llanbedr and Rhosneigr.

And Ireland's influence on Wales' population is apparent in the port areas of Holyhead and West Wales as well as in Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff, where people with Irish names make up more than 6% of each of those communities' populations.

However, the Welsh town with the lowest proportion of people with Welsh names was Chepstow, which had a lower proportion of Welsh names than six English towns.

Armand Watts, a councillor and former mayor of Chepstow, was relaxed about his home town being dubbed the "least Welsh" town in Wales.

He said, "I look after a predominantly working class ward and it's particularly interesting that if you go back to the recent World Cup these people - a good half - have allegiances to the English football team. It's quite surprising really.

"A lot of these people would traditionally have come from elsewhere to work in the steelworks but I would have assumed that with the amount of Joneses, Reeses and Griffithses on the electoral register, the people of Chepstow are predominantly Welsh."

Mr Watts explained that a significant proportion of the Chepstow postcode area was in England, which may have skewed some of the results.

And he added that as well as the historic ambiguities over whether Chepstow was part of Wales, England or the stand-alone county of Monmouthshire, more modern socio-economic pressures were at play in the town.

"A lot of people now live in Chepstow when they're from Bristol," he said. "Because higher house prices have forced them up this way.

"Some estate agents in recent years have even done a deal where they pay the buyer's bridge toll for the first year of commuting."

But for Mr Watts, Welshness is about more than just a name.

"We're not any less Welsh, we're just a lot more tolerant," he said.

"I've lived here for a long time - my name is Watts, not very Welsh, and my Christian name is Armand, but I'm Welsh, my identity is completely Welsh.

"And I'm as patriotic as anyone else on international days," he added.