The story
- Middle Welsh · derived frombarr
- English todayBodfari
From Welsh, where the first element is probably bod (“to be”), but the second is less certain. Possibly named after a saint *Tyfarre, a name that parallels the second element of the Irish Saint Fin Barre, a word meaning "head, tip," from Middle Welsh barr, with the honorific Welsh prefix ty- (“revered, honored”), similar to Tyfrydog. If so, the development could have been Bod Tyfarre > Botfarre > Botfarri > Bodfari.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.